The Artifacts of Rengar

THE ARTIFACTS OF RENGAR An M Litterae Est Magicae! Tale A story by actual students

MYSTERY, MAGIC, AND SOME TERRIBLE TEACHERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Session 01

NEW SEMESTER

Session 02

THE TOUR

Session 03

THE BLACK FOREST

Session 04

BUGBEAR'S POTION

Session 05

DARKNESS DESCENDS

Session 06

ORRINSHIRE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Session 07

THE WORM

Session 08

THE FALL

Session 09

THE BAG OF MANY TORMENTS

Session 10

THE MIND PRISON

Session 11

THE ASTRAL PRISON

Epilogue

This Edition of The Artifacts of Rengar is published exclusively for IDK Inc, Shanghai China

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thank you, To all of my wonderful students, whose incredible imagination and beautiful enthusiasm enabled the success of this class.

And to Linkedkey, for taking a chance on such a bold and bizarre program

- Matthew thompson

Authors Angela M Qi Rachael Zhou Colena Shan Chris Zhang Cynthia Cao Grace Min Haolin Mao Jerick Cai Justin Chen Justin Zeng Maxwell Dai Michael Du

SESSION ONE

New Semester

Rachael January 4, 3802 stared out at the gloomy grey skies that unleashed its torrent of rain and flashes for the world to see a display of its power. Somewhere, I knew, beyond the clouds and grey and fog were the stars beyond that never snuffed out their light for billions of years. Billions of years had they shone, and they shall for billions of years to come. I wondered how there was barely any light, only the light of Argon’s lantern coming up the stone-riddled path that weaved its way through Kahori, bringing magic to a dangerous and ever more strange new world.

My name is Rachael. At the time of this series of encounters, I was 11 years old, in the year 3802, and had a birthday coming on the 16th of January. It was an ever-changing world at that time, with all the rebellious acts like the fact that someone working in a munitions factory ‘accidentally’ set the whole stock on fire, or the fact that someone else from one of the stables in Central Territory ‘accidentally’ gave a horse a minor injury. But there in the Cryptic Lands, there was nothing more than forests and darkness and rain, with the sun peeking out every other day.

Now, as I watched the rain lash against the windows of one of the upper floors of the tower as the two specks - one glowing white and the other a dull black speckled with rain like a funeral procession - became larger and larger until one resembled a black carriage pulled by four black horses that whinnied and shook their manes as they trotted, the hansom behind it rattling furiously among the rocks and ridges. Behind the tower, the waving grasses of the Golden Prairies currently getting what I swear is a year’s worth of water dance happily in the howling wind and whirling rain, except the fact that it was covered in broiling darkness.

The horses were dripping wet by the time they pulled up next to the towered. As the horses stopped, they stamped on the ground, lifting their muzzles and whinnying, the ones at the back nipping at the hind legs of the ones in front. The carriage had water practically streaming down its sides, but Argon was smiling rather contentedly as he flicked his hand towards the door, and disappeared below.

There were less people than last year, and I watched as eight eleven-year-olds stumbled out of the carriage, immediately getting soaked in the downpour. One of them cast a rather hateful look towards the weather. There was a flash of lightning, followed a few seconds later by the low rumble of thunder, and the doors slammed shut as they followed Argon into the building.

I ran my finger over my shoulder, at the cut that I had acquired three hundred forty-nine days ago. I shivered, and put the thought at the back of my head. I didn’t want to think of it.

Everyone had changed. Angela was more subdued, Dominic was dead (he died of gastrointestinal obstruction because he ate too much sand, sad), Ethan had stopped vandalising Jerries, Erica was still very very quiet, Jayden was still reckless, Melissa was less suicidal, Kylie was still really really weird, Vanessa was still making random potions (did I mention she made me 11 again??), and Bingyin was the same as ever.

But the person who changed the most was Marysa. For example, we went down by a lake in about late October - Colena had joined us by then, on the condition that Tyrande didn’t call anyone “darling” or “dear” in front of her face. Angela, Ethan, Colena, and Kylie had been playing with Doggo, while Marysa looked on with a rather indifferent expression. There was a family standing nearby, and Doggo began to bring the ball to them instead of to Angela, Ethan and Kylie. When the family started

leaving, the father stooped, picked up Doggo and gently set him in his bag. They had not gone a few metres before Colena confronted them and got Doggo back, and brought him to Marysa. He looked indifferent at the moment, then said absent mindedly, “Yes, um… Thank you.”

I used the pronoun he because I knew for a fact that Marysa was Gustav in disguise, and after the beginning of February I had kept a close eye on him. Marysa/Gustav always locked the dormitory room after leaving it or disappearing inside - I heard the key turn in the lock several times, he insisted on the room being private, and I never saw him leave the room without pulling out the key, inserting it into the lock, turning it, then putting it back. I started staying up later during the night, forming plan after plan and theory after theory of where the amulet could be and how I should get it back. He flared up and became defensive at every single word the teachers said, particularly Tyrande. Not a surprise right there, but I had a feeling that this year, particularly this month, wouldn’t be as peaceful as we’d all hoped it to be.

Light streaked across the sky as more came streaking down, hitting a tree far far away and shattering it until it was but a stump. We all watched for a moment, as the carriage rolled away, shaking and bumping down the road. Spots of mud shimmered as lightning struck again and again across Kahori, and I wondered if Mother Nature was avenging the many children who had met their fates here.

We all turned to leave, taking one last glance at the raging storm outside that pounded on the windows with such force that the windows seemed to shake and I thought they were going to collapse for a moment. The candles on the walls flickered as the wind swept leaves seven feet into the air, and pressed them on the windows. Then, we left the room.

It was one in the morning anyway, so I guess I should begin the account on January 5th.

January 5th, 3802 We entered into the dimly lit room, lined with torches on the walls and stacked plates. As soon as we sat down, the whole room lit up, and hundreds of children (all of them older than us except one group) were seated at the long tables in the brightly lit hall. Garments of red, yellow, and blue were scattered across the hall, and several Jerries lined the walls, unmoving.

I eyed the only currently empty table, where Argon (yes guys, his parents named him Element 18 of the Periodic Table of Elements) was waiting. Ninechildren filed in and, shaking, sat down cautiously.

Argon said something to them, and went away. As soon as that happened, Colena walked over for some particular reason and said, “Hello.” The boy who was closest to her gave a violent start, jumping back with fear. I suppressed the will to go up and pull Colena away, instead looking on with considerable amusement. The table wasn’t really the funnest one now that Dominic died because he ate too much sand.

Colena waved towards them, and the boy sat back down at the table, still staring at Colena.

“Why are you guys so little?” she asked, with a rather superior air. I swear at least three quarters of them thought Colena was a bully. “I know I am,” spluttered the boy, “What are you?” Someone else picked up a roll and chucked it at Colena. It didn’t get far before it vanished. And so I guess that was the end of breakfast.

1. When I discovered that I had magic, the first thing I did was try to duplicate money, and then I blew up, my house, and set my mom on fire.

2. I felt both sad and hopeful, at the same, time. Sad because I won’t be seeing my family again, hopeful because I can learn magic, and help others 3. It felt very new, because I didn’t know anyone or anything 4. I ate bread, cereal, and chocolate milk.

1.When I realized i had magic powers i started to blast them into multiple daisies and that made me feel that i have power against the world and maybe even control it well it turns out i'm not the only person that has powers.

2.when I was taken out of bed that day, i felt a colt breeze when was exited the house and it woke me up. After i woke up, i found myself on a wagon with lots of of these men with big black cloaks.

3.When i arrived at the school, when i went up to my room, i found that everything fitted me everything i loved was there it was like heaven!

4.the first meal was so amazing i loved the chicken they served there there was lots of flavour full tastes and when i saw the teachers, they didn't look normal they look rather odd.

Hi, I'm Michael. When I discovered that I can use magic. I was very unsuspecting when I knew I could do magic. I was in my own house and I broke the window when I did my majic. I went out at night and I learned that I could summon dragons (ice dragons to be exact but I hate lightning so I don't summon lightning dragons). I was a bit nervous when a person called Crucible brought me to this school. I was also very suspicious of the school and him. I was literally half excited to be at the school that I don't know.

Michael

Class 1 - A New Semester

Experiencing Magic When I turned 11, it was midnight. I was still awake in my room to see if I had magic. The rest of my family were either asleep or silently waiting/wishing in their own room. It was a quiet and clear night with glittering stars in the sky. A couple of minutes passed and I thought that I had no magic. I was slightly sad, but happy that I could stay with my family. But suddenly, a bright light was swirling around me. It then disappeared, but I realized that my flower pot broke! I was so astonished. I cleaned up the soil and the broken vase while still in shock. After that, I tried to go to sleep but I couldn’t, I was so excited that I had magic! The only downside was that I had to get separated from my family. I layed in bed, thinking about what the school would look like. Then, after an hour or so, I fell asleep.

The Crucible The next morning, when I was eating, my family asked if I had magic. I answered yes and they were sad. I was also sad and scared, because I knew that the Crucible was going to take me away from my family and send me to the magic school. Since I already knew that they were going to come, I said early byes to my family and waited outside, still scared. After probably an hour or less, the Crucible was here and as they tried to take me away, I didn’t fight unless I felt uncomfortable in any sort of way. I got into the carriage(or whatever was going to take me to the school) pretty fast. I sat near the window. The entire time, I looked out of the window, looking at the tall mountains. I wanted to try to use my magic a bit because I was bored, so I tried it but it didn’t work. I was bored throughout the whole ride, unless there was cool scenery or any animals.

Arrival When the carriage(or car or something) arrived at the school, I got out and was fascinated by how large it was. When Argon was showing me our rooms, I quickly went inside my room and was so confused about the fact that there was stained glass but they formed my old drawings. I thought it was cool as well. I then saw that there was a book that was about fire(I forgot the name), and I swore to never read that book unless I had to. I put it in a drawer and I would never open it unless I had to. I then lay down on my bed and it was so comfy! It was so nice to lie down on a soft bed. I missed my family, so I looked in a desk and found a pencil. I looked some more and found a note pad. I then drew a picture of them and stuck it on a wall.

First Meal When I went to have my first meal, I looked at the other students and they had different meals which I thought was cool. Then, I looked down at the meal. It was bread with jam, scrambled egg(s), and cereal. When I took a bite of the bread, it tasted pretty good! Just like regular bread and jam. The rest tasted normal as well, and the milk was extra tasty. It was a good meal, I enjoyed it.

-Angela As the sun crept through the clouds I dashed to the window, today, the school returns in session. I came back to M Litterae est Magicae a few days ago after spending most of my summer with my friends and tried getting better and my illusion and destruction magic. I summoned my platypus Snouty a few times to keep me company.

Wait, more new students I looked down to see many children, they were smaller than I expected and they all seemed scared, I wonder if that's how we looked like? They were led by Argon, into the tower and disappeared from my view.

Soon after, I decided it was around time for breakfast, so I leaped onto the elevator and thought I wanted to eat breakfast. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, the elevator moved and took me to the dining hall. As I opened the gigantic doors, the smell of warm pancakes, apple pie, and any other delicious food there made its way up my nose. At first I looked around and all the tables were empty. Maybe I’m early, I was about to leave when I remembered that all the students reappeared as I sat down. Remembering that, I hurried over to a table and sat down.

Everyone was there, and hundreds of overlapping voices filled my eardrums. “Hey! How you guys doing have some food” Argon said through a cheery smile. I looked around Argon to see Professor Guil, Sir Festo, and Lady Tyrande. One boy, a new student I think kepted of diaperring a reappearing for I don’t know what reason. Then, Colena goes up to the new boy and asks “Why do you guys look so little?” “I-I know I am b-but what are you?”

Chris stuttered over his comeback. I giggled.

After my breakfast, I made my way back to my door and lost myself in a book.

I get up from my bed and my parents are sitting next to me. Today is the day that I will get magic, and unlike most parents, they want me to have magic! My mom and dad both were let out of the magic school as they had very amazing control of their magic, I always slept with it not because I liked it, but because my dad used to show me his magic. It was entertaining for young me, but now I just wonder, will I be the same? Oh well, l wake up and eat the pancakes on my plate. At midnight my parents wished me a final goodbye, the black knights came as I went into the carriage and fell asleep. When we got to the school, I did not care about the school a lot because I wanted to go to sleep.

I went into my room drowsy but saw a book called “The Life of a Puppeteer” before I would be very scared of it, but now I don’t feel scared, in fact I am very interested in the contents, I found a lime green hoodie which was very comfortable and was wondering, what was my magic? Did I not have magic? What if they were wrong? Suddenly neon green strings sprouted from my fingertips, that rapped my fingertips as well, they were like puppeteer strings, I went to sleep in a very comfortable bed.

I woke up starving and went to the eating table or as I like to call it, the mess hall like in a prison because that is what this is. As I was eating my hashbrown, eggs and bacon, a weird girl behind this purple force wall. She asks why are you so short? I say back I know I am but what are you Dum- then a guy with big muscles said to me , please don’t talk to the older students, Colena can be a bit of a handful. Well that was strange, ever since I got those neon green strings I feel like hiding my hands behind my back and when I do this the neon green strings come out of my fingertips. Oh well today is a new day, a new day with a new life.

Colena Shan

Date: January 1, 3081 Location: Torrine, Kahori, Maledictus Plagiarius (Cursed Planet), Andromeda Galaxy Most people dread the first day of the year they turn eleven because that day is the day you know whether you have gotten Magic or not. The government of Kahori decided that the children who obtain magic would have to be removed from other people for safety reasons. So anyone who gets magic gets recruited to this magic school (M Litterae Est Magicae, M is the Magic Letter in Latin, a language on Earth and Maledictus Plagiarius) by the Crucible (a cruel group led by Segall and Puck, other members are: Golvig, Rennyn, and Horar) to learn to control their magic. Many dread going there because many have died there.

Tonight I was gonna see whether or not I had magical powers. I was hoping I didn’t, but at 9:54 P.M., there was a knock on my door.

The Crucible had arrived.

Even though I tried hard to resist, I was eventually shoved into the carriage (with people named Erica, Marysa, Ethan, Jayden, Bingyin, Rachael, Melissa, Dominic, Kylie, Angela, Vanessa and Max) and headed north of the Conlis (Mountain in Latin) Mountain Range. I had never been there before, because everyone knew the type of people who lived there: Magical people, and nobody (well, let’s just say the majority of the people since there are always exceptions) wanted anything to do with those guys.

After a series of brief but interesting events, I found myself facing the School’s door. I hadn’t given up hope of escaping the school yet. As Jayden said something about a warm washroom, I ran as fast as I could towards the nearby forest.

Date: January 2-26, 3081 Location(s): The Cryptic Lands, North of the Conlis Mountain Range I spied on the others for the next few weeks, but also explored the forest called Tirinwood. Another girl, also named Rachael, was hiding there. I warned her about the Crucible, but shortly after the other Rachael at the school died, the girl from the forest got captured and brought to the school.

I saw everything that happened at Lubar Castle (including Rachael’s death and how she turned into a Jerry, a suit of armor) when they were there with Professor Gilmor (Gil, for short) after an Alteration Class, watched the students fight with Lady Tyrande and the Centaurs against the Land Sharks using Destruction Magic, and the Illusion Class with Illusion Festo and the Battle with the Black Fog (with a little help from illusions).

I spied on the students when they went to the Cave of Creeps and met this Stone-Girl named Elizabeth (Liz for short) and saw Argon get scared by a ghost in a dark hallway, Liz putting moss on everyone, and saw Illusion-Gustav. Gustav was the former Professor of Alteration (also known as Lord Rasputin of Lubar Castle, who killed the Rachael in the Carriage). Apparently, he was locked up in prison but managed to escape.

Then the students went to Doge Alley, Angela drank a bomb, Dominic consumed some “delicious” mouthwash, and Vanessa killed Steve Apple (an alchemist who sells random stuff and claims to be an Influencer).

I also saw Dominic eating sand at Mount Ashes, a lava dude named Inferno, Rachael getting burnt by fire, ghosts at the Ancient Sphukhaus, a puzzle you needed to solve to get an Amulet that can trap people (Dominic got trapped and was later released) and at Corpora Gravis the Graveyard, Liz talking to Humo’s grave, Dominic creating IPhone-12s for no reason at all, everyone crying at the sight of an illusion of Festo’s dead body (it was quite obvious and when Rachael caught sight of me, I told her) and Rengar’s empty tomb.

Date: January 30, 3081 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae, Marysa’s Room Dominic had died the day before (Reason: sand poisoning). I had asked the Fish-People who lived in the ocean near Mount Ashes to dig a grave for me to put Dominic’s body in. The Fish-People were quite excited to help bury a “pet”, and quickly agreed. In return, I offered to burn some of their trash.

After Dominic was buried, I told Vanessa, Rachael, Ethan, Melissa, Jayden, Bingyin, Kylie, Elizabeth (she wasn’t at the school, and she didn’t like Dominic much, but I still thought I ought to tell everyone Dominic met during his month in the Cryptic Lands), Max, and the teachers.

I was planning to tell Marysa tonight. I crept into Marysa’s room, and immediately saw Gustav on the bed. I dove behind a bookcase just before Gustav turned his head. I held my breath, hoping Gustav would think it was his imagination.

Apparently, he did, and when I glanced at the bed, I saw Gustav smirking to himself. Marysa looked oddly confused.

A tray of snacks lay on a table in the center of the room. Marysa took something from the tray, still looking oddly confused.

Her jaw dropped as she caught sight of Gustav. He picked up the amulet, which was lying on the bed just beside him. I stared at Marysa, looking for a reaction. She didn’t make any. Then…there was a bright flash and Marysa….was gone! I realized at once that Gustav had trapped Marysa in the Amulet. My sharp eyes saw her mouth open in an attempt to scream….but no audible sound came out.

Gustav held the amulet up to his face.

Don’t worry,” Gustav said, laughing. “We’ll get you out soon enough now that you’re home. Nothing to worry about, Master.”

I figured he was talking about Rengar. “Soon you’ll be restored.” I frowned. Wait a minute. Wasn’t it Marysa in the amulet? Was she the master or something? Or did Rengar need Marysa’s body or something to be restored?

I squinted. There, in a sea of light, barely visible, was a skeleton drifting across the water.

“Now,” said Gustav, addressing Marysa, who was still stuck in the amulet, “we just need to make sure we don’t lose you anywhere too hard to find. Oh, I may also have to talk to you. It was easy enough talking my way past my old friend Argon but as far as your classmates—especially the idiot one—” I scowled, immediately thinking of Dominic, but when I glanced at the amulet, Marysa looked really confused, as if she didn’t know who Gustav was talking about. “—needed to get some [insert something I didn’t hear].” He set the amulet down, pulled the blankets on the bed over himself, stretched, and smiled. He lay down, and slept.

I waited for an hour or two before sneaking out of the room, when I was completely sure Gustav was asleep. I took the amulet as I passed the bed, but then I hesitated. Gustav was a great wizard, even if he was stupid (which he certainly is) and he would realize that I took the amulet—he might do something. And who knew what the skeleton could do?

I whispered, “Marysa, I’ll get you out of this. I promise.” Then I set the amulet back on the bed, figuring Gustav wouldn’t realize the amulet was in a different spot on the bed, just as long as it was there. He wouldn’t be expecting someone to be spying in Marysa’s room, right? So I shut the door behind me as quietly as possible, and got out of the castle.

I didn’t think it was the best idea to tell anyone about what I’d just seen….but then I thought: I couldn’t be the only one who knew of it; keeping secrets about a friend in danger wasn’t a great idea.

I trusted few people, but two of them were Jerry-Rachael (who’s not a person anymore, more like an arcane construct or whatever the hell it’s called) and Rachael.

I went back inside the school, found the magical elevator-thing, and whispered, “Whichever floor the Jerry who was killed by Lord Rasputin of Lubar Castle is on!”

The elevator brought me to floor 3. To my surprise, I saw Rachael there, talking to Jerry-Rachael. I supposed that made it easier. I didn’t have to go to Rachael’s room now to fetch her.

“Guys,” I whispered. “Come with me. Please.”

“What?” Rachael said. She and Jerry-Rachael joined me on the elevator, which I requested to bring us to the ground floor. I led them outside.

“I was just in Marysa’s room, about to tell her about the death of Dominic since we haven’t told her yet...and I found Gustav there. Or Rasputin, whatever you want to call him,” I said. Rachael and Jerry-Rachael frowned. “Gustav….trapped Marysa in the amulet. But Marysa’s not the only thing in there. I saw a skeleton too. Also...Gustav is in Marysa’s room right now, sleeping.”

Rachael said, “What? Is he that careless?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “And the Amulet’s lying at the foot of the bed. Also, Gustav said, ‘We’ll get you out soon enough now that you’re home. Nothing to worry about, Master. Soon you’ll be restored,’ to the skeleton. What do you think he meant by that?”

“Maybe….they need to restore him to human form?” Jerry-Rachael suggested.

“Yeah….and then Gustav said to Marysa, ‘we just need to make sure we don’t lose you anywhere too hard to find. Oh, I may also have to talk to you. It was easy enough talking my way past my old friend Argon but as far as your classmates—especially the idiot one’ –he was talking about Dominic, but Marysa didn’t seem to understand that—‘needed to get some’ followed by something I didn’t really hear,” I said.

“That’s bad,” Rachael said.

Jerry-Rachael nodded. “Rachael, you’d better get to bed, in case somebody comes. Colena, you’d better get out of here, before anyone sees you.”

“Alright,” I said. “Don’t forget what I told you.”

“We won’t,” Rachael promised. “See you soon?”

“Next week, Monday, same time,” I said, and I watched as Rachael and Jerry-Rachael went back inside the school.

Date: February 1, 3081 Location: Tirinwood Forest I was just walking (nothing out of the ordinary) in Tirinwood Forest one day, when Lady Tyrande appeared in front of me.

“Hello,” I said. I expected Tyrande to be here looking for Centaurs or something, but she said to me, “We’re going to the school.

Come on.”

“Er…what?” I said, confused.

“You’re now a student of M Litterae Est Magicae,” Tyrande said. “Whether you like it or not. You cannot stay here forever. You have much to learn. Now come on.”

I decided to follow her, because I didn’t care if I was in the school or not anymore. She led me back to M Litterae Est Magicae, past the door I went through a few times before.

I followed her up the Magical Elevator to the Dorm Rooms. She led me to one that had a fancy gold sign that said, “Colena Shan of Torrine, Kahori” and said, “This is your room. Tomorrow, follow your fellow first-years. They will lead you to the Great Hall, or Dining Hall. Whichever you prefer. Anyways, I leave you now.” She got onto the Elevator and floated up.

I pushed open the door, and saw a huge room, not unlike Marysa’s. There were stained glass windows with pictures of snow, snowflakes, and bombs. The fireplace had no wood, but there was a fire anyways. There was a huge bath. I touched the water. There were three bookshelves, each holding fifty to sixty books.

Exhausted, I collapsed on the Queen-sized bed and slept.

Date: March 13, 3081 Location: Mount Ashes Only Rachael and I still knew about Marysa in the Amulet. Even though she seemed to appear at every class, we thought the Marysa we saw was really Gustav, hiding under an illusion.

And after today, Rachael, Jerry-Rachael and I were 125% sure that was true.

Today was a Sunday, and the teachers and Argon decided to bring everyone to the Lake where the Fish-People lived. Doggo and Snouty (Angela’s Platypus) followed us.

At the beach, Kylie, Jayden and Ethan played fetch with Doggo, making illusions out of thin air (Ethan was the best since he pledged Illusion, Kylie pledged Alteration and Jayden pledged Destruction). Marysa/Gustav just stared at the sea (which was creepy).

Vanessa talked to this fifth-year named Brooke, who turned out to be her sister. Angela played with Snouty. Bingyin spoke with Tyrande. Melissa and Erica chatted about who-knows-what. Elizabeth was there too. She was now speaking to the fish-people and Infernus, a Lava God or something.

Jerry-Rachael had come as well. She, Rachael and I were observing “Marysa” a lot these days, but it was difficult because “Marysa” had stayed in her room a lot lately, and she was refusing to let anyone in her room. She said she wanted to study more Alteration and Destruction, and bit of Illusion too, in case a test came up (which was possible, I guess, but Jerry-Rachael, Rachael and I thought it was much more likely that it was something to do with the Amulet and the skeleton of Rengar).

Ethan threw a bone (a real one, because illusions are half-real if you believe them to be and can therefore touch actual objects, which probably makes no sense at all), and it landed four hundred meters away (somehow Ethan got super throwing skills) and I only just realized—there was a family of four there. They immediately started playing with Doggo as he neared them, and Ethan, Jayden and Kylie became slightly sad.

A few hours later, the family of four left, and the father of the family put Doggo in his bag and the family left. I leapt to my feet.

That was Marysa’s Doggo, not theirs. I ran after them, and when I caught up, I said, “HEY! That’s ours. Give it.”

The father unzipped his bag, and Doggo came out and ran back to Ethan. I returned to the beach and offered it to “Marysa”, who looked startled and said, “Um…yeah…right thanks…”

Rachael waved her hands and a lot of the Fish-People’s trash disappeared. The Fish-Queen, which Vanessa and Dominic (and I think Rachael as well) called Voldemorta (which is the worst name ever for a fish), swam over and thanked us.

As soon as we got to the castle, I muttered to Rachael and Jerry-Rachael, “My room, quick.”

“What’s up?” Rachael asked once I had shut the door.

“It is definitely Gustav disguised at Marysa,” I said. “When I offered Doggo to her—erm—him—Gustav just said, ‘Um…yeah…right thanks…’ I don’t think Marysa would say that. She loves her Doggo.”

“Interesting,” Jerry-Rachael said. “I wonder when Rasputin will let something slip and when everyone figures out it’s not really Marysa?”

“I’m still not sure whether we ought to tell anyone,” I said, “because I don’t think they’ll believe us, and will probably just tell us off.”

Date: December 29, 3081 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae

“Hey guys!” I had a slip of paper in my hand. “I just found out who the new kids are gonna be.” (I had actually snuck down to where the Crucible were preparing the carriage and duplicated the piece of paper I found in Segall’s pocket.)

“How many?” Vanessa asked.

“Only ten,” I replied, “and their names are Grace, Justin—there are two Justins, Justin C and Justin Z, Cynthia, Chris, Jerick, Michael, and Haolin. Most are from Torrine, but one lives on the border of the region Imberlion and Central Territory.”

Here was what the paper said, From ARGON: Students to pick up for the year 3082: Grace from Torrine Justin C from Torrine Justin Z from Torrine Cynthia on the border of Central Territory and Imberlion Chris from Torrine Jerick from Torrine Michael from Torrine Haolin from Torrine Kaeden from Unknown-Location William from Unknown-Location

DON’T KILL ANY OF THE STUDENTS Signed, Segall, Puck, Rennyn, Golvig

“They’ll be arriving on the fourth, then,” Jerry-Rachael said. “The drive is three days long.”

I took out a map of the Empire of Kahori. Halimur, Imberlion, then Central Territory. That seemed about right.

Date: January 4, 3082 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae Rachael, Angela and I were watching the door (ahem, portal) to the school, waiting impatiently to see the new first-years (we were very curious) arrive. The other second-years (Erica, Kylie, Jayden, Ethan, Melissa, Bingyin, and Vanessa) hadn’t been interested, so it was just the three of us. “Marysa” was, as usual, in her room.

A short while later, eight students appeared (two were missing, huh, and they looked way smaller than the three of us expected), followed by Argon. They were all dripping wet from the rain outside, and one of the boys glared hatefully outside at the weather. We watched as Argon instructed them to get on the Elevator and the Elevator floated to the Dorm Rooms.

The next day, at breakfast, we saw the first-years come in, looking confused. Argon said something to them, then walked to where he usually sat. They sat down at their table, and glanced around, looking startled to see so many people who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. I walked over and said, “Hello.” One of the boys gave a violent start, jumping back in fear. I waved at them, and the boy sat back down at the table, looking nervously at me. I decided to say something pretty rude (why, I’ve got no idea).

“Why are you guys so little?” I asked. Six of them looked at me as if I was a bully (I don’t blame them). Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my fellow second-years trying hard to hide their laughs.

“I know I am,” the boy named Chris stammered. “But what are you?”

Another boy grabbed a roll and threw it at me. It vanished before coming within a meter of me (Reason: Different years have their own tower, aka the tower they entered the first day they were here, and other years have different ones, and they’re all on different planes, and the Dining Hall is the place all the planes are closest, which is why we can see each other).

I returned to my table, grinning, and finished my breakfast.

See ya.

SESSION TWO

The Tour

Rachael January 5th, 3082 his is a bad idea. That was what I thought when Gil called us to his office and told us that we were supposed to give a tour to the first years. “Us” means “Angela, Colena and I”, for your information.

So how it happened was that Gil (his real name is Gilmor) called us to his office, and so all three of us went to the elevator, thought about flying to third floor, and did so. I hesitated for a moment, wondering what in the whole world was the reason that Gil had asked for us. We found three red doors facing us, and the one marked “Professor Gilmor” was slightly ajar.

“Come in,” his firm and cold voice called out.

We reached out, knocked (we’re not that rude now, though I still doubt that we’ll be asking any of our assailants their names. After all, they didn’t ask us our names in the first place, so why should we?), and, pushing the door open, went in.

It was a brightly lit room, stately room, the walls lined with the shadows of the few shelves that lined the room. There was a desk in the middle, a brown one that looked like it was made of cherry wood, lined with shining, golden handles that opened to drawers full of papers and random collectables.

The desk itself had several books stacked in a corner, and many filled the shelves with the colourful volumes of green, blue, red, and so many other colours. Behind the desk, which faced the door, was a chair and a stained glass window. The window depicted a colourful city in a festival, towering spires casting intimidating shadows upon the roads below, which was lined with carriages sporting many colours and glossy horses that merrily tramped down the path. I had no doubt that that window was a depiction of Orrinshire, which was the capital of Gil’s home, Primar. On the chair, which was a majestically simple chair - a brown, rounded backrest that extended to a red seat that suggested a regalness - sat a bald man with dark skin, dark eyes, no hair on his head, clean shaven, and wearing red robes with his sleeves open. His very appearance suggested audacity, which is very truthful - he indeed was bold and tended to take pleasure in doing risky things.

At that moment, he appeared to be waiting for us while keenly reading a book labelled the General Rules of Alteration, Illusionary, and Destruction Magic by Ardor Inville, whoever that is. The book had a teal spine, on the spine and cover the title was emblazoned in golden letters, and was about five hundred to six hundred pages thick. He looked up, closed the book, put it aside, and started looking like a consultant lecturing a client. Or consultee if you want to be part of the local government.

“Rachael, Colena, and Angela,” he began, “I have a special task for you this morning.”

Oh great, I thought, What is he going to make us do? Teach the first years how to throw snowballs with their minds?

“As you know,” he continued, “The new arrivals are here, and as per tradition their first class will be with me.”

We all know what happened last time, do we not?

“I don’t need to remind you what happens when students are ill-prepared,” he said. Clearly the memory of whatever happened was still gnawing its way into his conscience. “For their first trip out into the wild, which is what they will be taking today. And-” here he paused for a split second “-we have decided to take a few more steps to help ensure the students’ safety. Namely, we’re going to be

attaching a couple of Upper year students to this newer class to serve as a sort of guide or mentor for them. Um, Marysa was also assigned to this group, though I don’t see her right now.”

He’s probably in her room pretending to be her and talking to a skeleton in an amulet right now, I thought.

“I’ll make sure Jerry reminds her.”

Both Colena and I exchanged glances.

“Today I’m going to give my usual demonstration to the new class, and then after that, each of you are going to demonstrate various schools of magic. Angela and I will demonstrate Alteration, Rachael is going to assist us in giving us a demonstration of Destruction, and Colena, if you would, we would really enjoy it if you could give a demonstration of Illusionary magic.”

“Wait,” Colena interjected, “Why can’t Marysa do Illusionary magic? She pledged to Illusion.”

“Ideally we would have Marysa do it,” Gil replied, “but just in case she’s not able to, I'd like to have you do it instead.”

“Uh...Well- Uh- um, well,” Colena stammered, looking slightly baffled, though she didn’t look surprised that Marysa/Gustav hadn’t come. “I think I might fail because I’m not that skilled at any type of magic as Angela, Rachael and Marysa-” “I’ve spent a whole year teaching you guys magic, and I’m sure that you’re quite talented,” said Gil, a hint of a laugh on his face. “Before we begin the lesson - this is what we initially wanted you here for - Colena we were going to have Marysa do the magic demonstration - but we also need you to do an orientation tour-” Oh no why me had crossed my mind at that point.

“-and Argon is rather unable to do it right now. So we thought, ‘which among us knows more of this school than Colena!’ and-” “Well it’s true she was spying on us the whole time,” I muttered.

“-that she’d be quite well suited to help, um, orient the new students. So, if you would, exit the tower, return in about an hour’s time, and you will find that the door will lead you to their tower, and not your tower.”

“Um, okay,” Colena said, rather nervously, which was unlike her character, “Um - Can I go to Festo’s floor to get him to help me with illusion magic?”

“Yes, that might be a good idea - a nice little bit of preparation. Not a bad idea.”

“Uh, can I do something weird right now?” Angela inquired.

“I wish you would,” said Gil. “As long as it isn’t directing a crowd towards me,” I said under my breath. Apparently she wanted to singe Gil’s hair, but the only problem was that he had none.

Colena went to Festo’s floor to practice illusionary magic, which I’m afraid didn’t go very well.

She tried to summon an illusion of a ping pong ball and racket, which had major consequences that fortunately weren’t permanent.

Angela and I went outside and did random things (well she was cuddling her platypus and I was drawing another map), then Colena joined us a quarter of an hour later donning an odd cap that didn’t look or fit very well because all her hair had fallen out due to a side effect.

“Hi,” she said, joining us.

“Uh…what happened to your hair?” I asked, looking up from my work.

“I’m assuming it’s a side effect,” she answered.

“Which one?” I asked, extracting a notebook from my bag. Colena and I had been keeping track of all the stuff that happened when someone failed a magic spell. “Is it a new one?”

“Yes. I don’t think it’s permanent though…I can feel some hair growing back,” she said.

“Happened in Festo’s office while trying to create an illusion of a ping-pong paddle. Three Festos present. Not sure if any of them was the real Festo.”

I opened the notebook to a new page and scribbled down: January 5, 3082 Possible Side Effect: the person who casts the spell loses all their hair Victim of the Side Effect: Colena Shan Where the Side Effect Happened: Festo’s Office Spell Attempted before the Failure: Making a ping-pong paddle illusion.

People present: 3, 4 Festos (possibly Illusions) and Colena.

An hour later, we entered back through the black wall or, if you want to call it that, blue portal.

We found ourselves in virtually the same ground floor, except the fact that the Jerry standing there was two inches to the left from where it should have been, the torches were rather a bit unevenly spaced, and, for the four pillars that jutted out of the ground, 1. The base of them had one inch more of perimeter, 2. The Ionic pillars looked like the sculptor had messed up on carving the lines, 3. It was larger at the base than at the top, whereas ours were equally big. And the blue disk in the middle was lighter than I remember and was 2 centimetres to the right. It didn’t take us long to figure out that this was the first years’ dimension - in fact, it took like ten milliseconds because we were told that it was theirs.

The first years apparently also figured out that you need to step on the disk and think about flying. They came down, one by one, in this order: Jerick, Grace, one of the Justins, the other Justin (sorry I didn’t know the difference), Michael, Chris, Cynthia.

“Hello,” Colena said in a voice that told me she was unsure where to begin, what to say, and where to go.

“Um. Why did you call me short at lunch?” Chris asked.

“First of all, she didn’t call you short, she called you small. Second of all, do you know the difference between breakfast and lunch? Or are you not small, but dumb?” I muttered.

“I called you small,” Colena replied.

“Same thing,” said Chris, rather absent-mindedly.

Okay, language time. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of small is ‘not large in size, number, degree, amount, etc.’ In this case, it’s ‘not large in size’. The definition of short, on the other hand, in this case, is ‘(of a person) small in height’. Therefore that point does not stand.

“Is not,” retorted Colena.

“How dare you,” Chris said sarcastically.

“I dare do a lot of things,” Colena said calmingly.

“How dare you,” Chris repeated, a hint of mock menace in his voice. “Also, I have a question what’s the purple thingy near the other purple thingy when we came here?” SPECIFIC. “I have no idea what you saw when you came here,” answered Colena, “So. What are you talking about?”

“Um, like when you came in - like the - thing, like the carriage, did you see like a big purple dome with like a city in it?”

“No,” I muttered, “I didn’t see that because I got dragged past it unconscious.”

“Oh right,” said Colena, “That looks like the - that’s Doge Alley. It apparently protects the, um, people from getting killed by magic.”

“What if little baby sheeps and little babies-” Angela broke in, but was soon cut off by Colena.

“And also,” she continued, raising her voice and ignoring Angela’s protests, “Once you go in, you can’t do any magic there. I mean, I think-” “Yeah, but I also think it’s easy to-” Angela interrupted but got interrupted by Colena.

“-there are some exceptions, I think, but not Alteration, Illusion, and Destruction.”

“Yeah, and I became an influencer there,” Angela added, which earned her a very scornful look from me.

“A horrible influencer, if I’m honest,” Colena retorted.

“Yeah and- yeah. Well, Vanessa killed, um, who was it called again?”

BRO YOU ONCE CALLED HIM YOUR FAVORITE AND FORGOT HIS GODDAMN NAME???

“Steve Apple,” Colena said, clearly not very comfortable and considerably irritated by this conversation. “Right. And you tried to get everyone to murder Rachael.”

“What do you mean by like, Illusion and Destruction?” Chris interrupted.

“Those are like, branches of magic,” Colena responded, “So basically Illusion’s like making random stuff appear in the air-” “Destruction is like when you use magic to destroy stuff and Illusion is when you use magic to-” Then everyone started talking over each other for like two seconds and then it ended with Justin saying something that included “stupid year” or something like that.

“Professor Gil will teach you Alteration today,” Colena continued, “That’s your first class. Uh. So, any other questions?”

“Yeah. What did you do last- like when you came here?” Chris asked. All three of us - that is, Colena, Angela, and I - exchanged uncomfortable looks.

“We got murdered by a couple of centaurs,” Angela said.

“No you didn’t!” said Colena indignantly, “You’re still alive, you’re still breathing, and there is no way to bring back the dead. No, last year we breathed, we walked, we existed, we talked, we ate dinner et cetera, et cetera.”

“Oh yes, I also breathed in air,” Chris said mockingly, “Very very cool, huh?”

“Not really,” Colena said, clearly not getting the point.

“Right. Tell me what you did.”

“I just told you!” Colena said, and I think she was mildly angry at this point. “I gave you a very very honest answer!”

“Then can you not tell us what you did last year?” Chris asked in a feeble attempt to get us to say “yes”.

“Absolutely. Of course, now what do you want to do now?” Colena snickered.

“Can you not not tell us what you did last year?” Chris asked.

“Yes, no, maybe, so,” Colena said dismissively, “What other questions do you have?”

“Tell us now,” Chris demanded.

“‘Tell us now’ is not a question,” Colena said, amused now, “Sorry. Please try again.”

“Yes yes yes,” Chris said abstractedly. “‘Yes yes yes’ is not a question,” Colena briskly said, “Please try again.”

“Yes,” Chris said, clearly having lost his brains on the way down the elevator.

“Ayo, Colena, how is the tour going?” Jerry interrupted, “The tour? Isn’t that your job?”

“What? Professor Gilmor wasn’t very specific with the instructions,” Colena said, “so maybe you can give me instructions that actually make sense? Other than gossiping?”

“Yeah yeah yeah. So where is, like, the entrance way, tell them about how the Great Hall works, why you like-” “It’s a Great Hall?” Colena objected, “I thought it was the Dining Hall! This is a rip off of Harry Potter!”

“Uh, blah blah blah, the Dining Hall or whatever you want to call it, I’ve never heard of that other book, this is a dinky place-” “Are you serious?” Colena said, “You’ve been- You’ve never heard of the Great Hall? You love gossiping with the Jerries and everywhere and you share thoughts-” “I don’t think Harry Blotter exists in this universe, also, uh, there’s like some teacher rooms up there, you can tell them about those and the classrooms-” “Yeah, if you want-” “The- the- the- staff room,” Jerry continued, completely ignoring Colena, “where they’re not allowed to go - how have you forgotten all the stuff? And then show them the school grounds, and why there’s all these centaurs and how you failed to protect them.”

“Why should I tell them about a place they’re not supposed to go to? Isn’t that just- isn’t that just going to make them want to go there?”

“There’s something foreshadowing, Colena, maybe they’ll want to go there someday. I mean, I don’t know.”

“Uh, quick question,” one of the Justins intervened, “Is there an AP program in this school?”

“I think you’re going to have to ask the teachers. They’re probably going to say no, because you don’t know any magic yet,” Colena replied.

“Hey, Colena, why don’t you teach them a spell?” Jerry taunted.

“Hmmm… no.”

“Ah what else - I’m just asking you, you’re not supposed to do that.”

And since we’re not very good followers of rules, Angela decided to try to electrocute Chris, which crackled and snapped past Chris’s head and dissolved in the wall.

“Okay, Angela, why are you trying to kill the first years?” Colena asked.

“Because he’s asking too many questions and we don’t want to tell them what we did,” replied Angela.

“So what if he’s asking questions? Just don’t answer them! Oh my god, it’s not a crime to ask too many questions here, Angela!”

“You do illegal things?” Chris said in the middle of this very heated argument between Angela and Colena, “Is that why you don’t want us to know?”

“We don’t do illegal things - actually, I don’t really know because I’ve never read the laws of Kahori carefully.” No one bothered to read those anymore. Really, all it’s about is droning on about how we need to follow the law or else everyone’s going to die or whatever.

“Never put on Jerry’s helmet or you’ll die,” Angela said, rather with a sardonic air.

“Oh, why did you tell them that,” Colena said indignantly, “I wanted to see them die!”

Half of them still looked like they were hungry for information as to what we did last year, so I said, “On no condition will we tell you anything that we did last year.”

This was basically a rather more respectful way than saying Shut up and stop asking questions, it’s none of your business so go stick your nose back on your face and not into someone else’s errands.

Um, so, we did some stupid stuff, argued a bit, then ended up having to give them a tour because, well, we were just wasting time, and I’m not sure if we had a tight schedule, but knowing Gil, he probably wouldn’t be pleased if we dilly-dallied for ten hours. Then we went outside.

Next time, I thought, Remember not to hire us for tours.

It wasn’t as rainy nor as cloudy as the day before - in fact, the sun was shining brightly in the blue sky above that was dotted with the clouds that looked as if they were made of cotton candy that could just be plucked out of the sky. Some of the snow had turned to ice, but overall it was still snow, and it was a clear day ahead, blotted only by the broiling mass of darkness that still lay thick upon the prairies.

The golden stuff that waved and danced in the wind only peered out, waving, from the land occasionally now, because the whole of the plains that were once beautiful and golden were engulfed in the darkness that covered them.

The wind did not howl or whistle, only a chilling breeze that swept across the grounds and into the broiling mass that did not show any signs of life. The sleek purple dome that marked Doge Alley lay in the distance, with the intimidating figures of the Conlis beyond. Across the plains, faintly marked behind the blackness, were two figures: that of a castle, and that of a towering spire cracked with bricks. To the northwest was the Dark Forest, which smudged the landscape that lay before us. The small figure of a house was next to it, and to the west was a volcano and a sea with tall grey steeples protruding from it. I knew that beyond all those, were the seas beyond, and some faraway land that I would never go to.

Professor Gilmor was walking out towards us, standing at about 6 foot 4 inches (Sorry but I can’t do the 6”4’ thing or is it 6’4”), or 1.9304000000000001 metres. Even though the biting cold was blowing around him, he appeared undisturbed by it. His hands were folded behind his back, and he started by saying “The once pristine Golden Plains, the home of our friends the centaurs” as if that had anything to do with what we would be doing today. Also, it’s a prairie.

The centaurs were scattered around, huddled around fires and doing random stuff with their bows. Some of them looked genuinely curious about us. “Currently destitute and seeking aid from us,” Gil added, “That is our destination today. Well, it’s more like the route of our travel, our destination is the Dark Forest beyond, but we will need to cross the plains. Today is the first day that you will use magic under instruction, with attention, guidance, and discipline. Magic has the power to create, manipulate, and empower its user.”

He held out his hand, and a stick shot out of a barrel and into his hand. “It also,” he continued, “has the power to destroy.” He tossed it in the air, and it exploded into thousands or millions of little splinters that floated gently to the ground. It shattered without the usual loud bang that was accompanied with exploding things when you add a fuse to a pile of explosive stuff. “There are three

schools of magic,” said Gil, “and they will be demonstrated to you today, though you will only receive training in one. The school of Alteration allows you to change the world around you.”

As he said this, all of the other sticks floated out of the air as well, and started whacking each other like they had a major quarrel and were now using violence to compensate for it. “Creativity is your staunchest ally.” The barrel began to grow red, and melted completely into the snow. Two long chains floated out from the mess that was left, and it wrapped around his fists, and as all the sticks went flying at them, he smashed them all to pieces, which left not so enjoyable splinters on the snow like blood on grass. He shook his hands, and the pieces of the barrel decided to stop clinging to his hand and dropped onto the ground, enhancing the mess that was already around him.

“Today I will be teaching you how to alter the world around you,” he continued, oblivious to the fact that he just annihilated a whole barrel of sticks and that now the pieces were lying around him. “We will place you in a moderately stressful situation and see how you perform. We have brought a couple of students from your upper year to help shepherd you and guide you, and we’re going to get a brief demonstration of a spell from their chosen school of magic.”

Clearly Angela was not listening to this lecture, because what she “demonstrated” next was not very creative of her. So basically how it was supposed to work was Angela was supposed to attack me with Alteration, I was supposed to defend myself with Destruction, and then Angela would attack Colena, who would defend herself with Illusion. Pretty straightforward.

A burst of lightning ripped out of her hands, which I do admit caught me by surprise because I had expected her to do something more creative than blast me with lightning like she did all the time. It was apparently aimed at my face, and so I quickly waved my hand in front of it and clenched it into a fist.

It only shielded my torso, but it was fine because the thing really was aimed at my head. The lightning glanced off the blue light and deflected it into the sky, and I shook my arm out because it did hit me harder than I expected.

Angela then waved her hands, and about twelve rocks lifted up from the ground, ready to fire at Colena. Before she could do it, however, Colena vanished. She apparently was floating in midair, because when Angela pelted her with rocks, there was a strangled and suppressed oof that sounded like it had been uttered through gritted teeth, a rock bounced at a funny angle, a thump as she landed on the ground, a print in the snow where she landed, and footprints as she walked a little before reappearing some two metres away. “Uh- wonderful, wonderful,” said Gil, “Thank you for the demonstration everybody.

“Jerick,” he called out. A boy walked forward. “Good. Good,” Gil said. He lifted his hand, and a rock started levitating in the air. “Alright, think fast!” It flew towards him, and Jerick ducked, snatching it out of the air, while looking at Gil, intrigued. “Uh- Well okay, good, but- do something magical with it,” Gil said, clearly trying to suppress himself from yelling “USE MAGIC IN MAGIC SCHOOL”. Jerick looked confused for a moment, then stared at the rock in his hand, concentrated, and the rock split into two pieces and started battering the ground below, stirring up clouds of snow. “Wonderful work,” said Gil, “Very good.”

“Grace,” he called next. A girl stepped up. He threw a snowball at her. “Think fast,” he said again.

Grace swiftly sidestepped it, which ended with it hitting a girl behind her, Cynthia, full in the face. “Okay, everybody here is really good at dodging, stop that,” Gil declared, “Snakes!” He snapped his fingers, and

from the snow, a snake slithered into existence. Angela and Colena stifled a laugh and tried to keep their faces straight. Quite rude of them right there.

Grace tried to melt it, which was the most natural thing as snow melts. She failed. Then she looked confused. She tried to freeze it, and ended up having to shout when she spoke. “STOP SENDING A SNAKE AT ME!” she yelled.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Gil said, and the snake collapsed as he clapped his hands.

“That’s a magical side effect,” Colena said, her face contorted with silent laughter. Very rude of you to laugh right there, Colena.

“Uh, yes. When spells go wrong, sometimes bad things can happen. Thank you very much, Grace. Uh, Cynthia- sorry about the snowball, what would you like to fight? Hmm… Think fast.”

Seriously, when will you be more creative with your words, Gil? The ground beneath Cynthia began to fall. She concentrated as she was falling, then erupting out of the hole was Cynthia and her pillar of dirt. I think she might have overdid it, because she ended up fifteen feet higher than the ground, with no form of getting down. A whole bunch of centaurs were clapping at this, because they were really impressed by what they just saw. There must be a really nice view up there.

Chris got the notorious ice snake again. It gazed at him with its sinister empty eyes, cold in every way. The patterns on its body did not help to ease this fact. It rapidly moved through the snow, and soon it was lunging towards Chris for a bite- Chris gestured towards it, and it flew up into the air, turned into a rat made of snow, landed in his hand with a squeal, and bit Chris. He uttered a painful ow and threw it to the ground, where it became snow again.

“Uh- pretty good, yeah, pretty good. Maybe something with less teeth next time. But, good.

Michael!” He looked towards a boy, who nodded nervously towards him. Gil waved his hand, and the snow around him rose up to form the shape of a man, except it wasn’t a man. It was a decapitated man, with the stump of a neck as smooth as if it’d been cut off by the dropping blade of a guillotine. It had broad shoulders, with muscles on its legs and arms, large hands that looked ready to fight, and a very thick neck - or what was left of it. A fist punched the palm of its hand, and Michael extended his hands towards it, looking very unsure about what he was supposed to do. There was a very long and awkward pause as the headless snowman continued to advance, before a whole bunch of fire surged out of his fingertips and wonderfully vapourized the snowman. “Wow,” Gil said, before gesturing to one of the Justins.

Another head deprived person made of snow appeared, and advanced towards Justin. He turned and ran. Gil looked intrigued after him as he struggled his way through the eight inch deep snow. “Does he really think he can outrun a snowman in the snow?” Gil said, and flicked his finger at the snowman, which picked up speed, quickly gaining on Justin, driving him off the school grounds.

Gil looked at the other Justin. Another ice golem appeared. The stump of a neck looked more ugly than ever, and it didn’t help that it didn’t seem to be wearing a shirt. Justin somehow made a flamethrower out of snow, I don’t know how, but it didn’t blast fire, it just blasted a whole lot of hot steam, which hit the ice golem in the chest and thawed a large hole in it.

The other Justin, meanwhile, was not doing well with tackling the ice golem. He was running towards the gate, where there were a whole bunch of bow and quivers. He snatched an arrow and a bow as he dashed past it, nocked it, drew the string back, and fired. Justin missed, and the arrow whistled where the head was supposed to be but apparently did not exist. The ice golem, taking advantage at the

pause that Justin had needed, overtook him, and grabbed him. Grace ran towards it, and it grew larger, and larger, until Gil said, “Excellent” and it decided to no longer exist, collapsing and spraying snow all over Justin. Great.

After that disastrous bit right there, we walked towards the Dark Forest. We were also supposed to be waiting for two more students that the Crucible needed to track down, and we were missing Marysa. Not on a great start. Including Gil, and all three of us second years, there were twelve people.

Four fifths of everyone. But we had to keep moving because there was nothing we could do about it. Gil thought Marysa might be sick, and in my mind I agreed with him. But not because of any physical problem.

I imagined the amulet. The thin, silver, gleaming chain that extended to a plain silver plate. The polished gem-like stone, the white liquid that seemed to emit light itself. And then Marysa. It was unimaginable, what Colena had told me. I pushed the thought out of my mind.

The black tar that covered the prairies broiled and looked like a wave that was ready to hit at any moment. We hadn’t gotten far before we came across a campfire. It had been burning a long time ago this was notable by the fact that there were no embers, as there would be in a recently burning fire. A makeshift hut stood next to it, suggesting that whoever lived here traveled often. This was the location where we’d met Argon, and we looked around for a moment before pressing on.

Gil gave instructions that we’re supposed to encircle the first years. So that was what we did. Gil was in the front, Colena at the right, I at the left, and Angela bringing up the rear. The first years looked rather confused at the formation, because it was probably better that they didn’t know that there were scorpions that could kill them right beside us, corrupted centaurs that could kill us with their arrows not too far away, and random black things that were probably intent on killing us.

As we reached where the school grounds and the prairies bordered one another, Gil paused. He tapped his staff (oh did I forget to mention that he had a staff?) on the ground in front of him, and the mass of darkness peeled away with some resistance to both sides, something keeping back the scorpions and dark stuff and corrupted centaurs. As this pause happened, I discreetly picked a couple of goldenrod flowers from the field, in case that anyone had any physical injuries, stuffing them into my bag. The path was about 4 feet wide, and the three of us - Colena, Angela, and I - moved closer to the first years. It was wider in some places and narrower in others, and in some places we walked double file, other times single file. The grass revealed underneath the black stuff reached up to just above my knees, a golden, wavy grass.

I gazed around nervously, the occasional towering shadow looming above us - except it wasn’t a shadow. The black material that it was made of was far too thick to be a shadow. It had the feeling of a chasm, that opened up into - well, nothingness until someone finds out it’s something.

After an hour and a half, my ears picked up the sound of distant hoofbeats. They became louder and louder - I assumed they were corrupted centaurs. Except, there was something wrong. The centaurs usually attacked in herds. The hoofbeats that I picked up belonged to eight or twelve hooves, which meant two or three centaurs. Gil, Colena, Angela and I prepared for combat, Gil spinning his staff nervously. “Corrupted centaurs,” he called out to us, “take your positions. Protect the new arrivals at all costs.” I saw figures resembling horses galloping through the hazy darkness, and thenTwo perfectly normal but very frantic horses burst out of the darkness. They were black horses, groomed well, though in their panic their manes had become dishevelled. Their black horse collar was

studded with gems, evidently well taken care of, and the horse harnesses were black as well, though not as fancy. We both relaxed, except for the fact that these two horses were pulling a carriage behind them that was fixed with a golden lock. Two terrified faces peered out from the windows.

“After them!” Gil yelled after a pause. Angela waved her hand, and a force field appeared, shimmering, around the four-wheeler. As she did this, I flicked my hand towards the harnesses, which were tethered to the carriage, and a long cord of blue light extended from my hand, swiftly severing them. The horses, neighing and whinnying with panic, galloped off into the distance, waving their heads like some insane person, the gems on their collars gleaming as they once again disappeared into the tar.

The carriage, meanwhile, was driven on by momentum for a moment or so, before skidding to a grinding halt, its occupants unharmed, though shaken.

On a normal occasion I would have walked to the horses, soothed them, and then did whatever I needed to do, but who knows what normal is in that place? Plus, another reason I couldn’t have done it is because I would’ve been trampled and probably either seriously injured or dead.

The force field disappeared, and Gil walked up to it and started making complicated gestures with his hands, trying to disable the magical lock. It took a much longer time than expected, suggesting that the Crucible should not be underestimated. After about a minute, he tore off the lock and opened the door, and two new students stumbled out, by the name of William and Kaedan. I flinched and looked away because their late arrival reminded me so much, too much, of mine, and therefore, of home.

“I hope you’re alright,” Gil said with uncertainty, “I need you to accompany us - we don’t have time to return to the school and I can’t send anybody back with you. Just try to stay in the middle of the group. You should be alright.”

We continued moving through the prairie. It was relatively uneventful after that, though no less unsettling. There were distant shouts, which were probably the corrupted centaurs, hunting something, and I wasn’t sure what it was, and I had a shivering feeling that I didn’t want to know. Some half an hour later, we arrived at the edge of the Dark Forest. The ground here was very different. There was little to no grass, in fact, there were little green things. The occasional weed or tuft of grass poked out here and there, but otherwise, it was a bleak and foreboding landscape that met our eyes.

Colena, Angela, and I recognized this place. There was a hut standing near the middle, made of wood that suggested a skillful worker, deftly crafted, with the door ajar. The roof had straw on it, and looked very dishevelled. There was a cart lying next to it, tipped over and evidently pillaged. I could actually remember that moment, when Melissa eagerly ran over to it and started picking out things.

There were a whole bunch of holes in the ground, one that Kylie had dug and others where the land sharks had burst out of the ground.

The footsteps had been erased by the rain over the past year, but I still remembered where they were. Melissa’s when she’d ran over to pillage the cart, the others that followed her, the REAL Marysa’s as she walked inside the hut and back out again, Kylie’s when she walked over to dig a hole, Vanessa’s when she had stood on the ridge, so far, so forth.

“For today’s assignment,” Gil said, “it is straightforward, but quite important. Our mission is to cleanse the corruption of the tarnished plains. To put them back the way they were-” “How are you supposed to do that?” Colena interrupted.

“I’m going to tell you,” Gil said, with a little annoyance in his tone. “Inside the forest, there is a spring. And from this spring, nourishing, cleansing water has always been harnessed by the centaurs to

nourish their own environment. The water from these nourishes these plains, keeping them robust, strong, healthy, full of nutrients, and the animals that graze the plain, in turn, are helping the forest, and the centaurs have grown stronger because of this. I believe this is the solution. There exists a fountain that could cure all of this. And its waters are supposed to flow through carefully constructed irrigation channels.”

He pointed at two streams. But instead of water, perhaps the clear water of the streams, or the murky water of the rivers, the water was just pure black. Like oil, except oil didn’t appear in streams.

There were no rocks to be seen, like those at the bottom of a river or a stream. Just plain, black, oily stuff.

“That,” Gil said, “is the source of our problem. We’re going to venture into the forest, and do what we can to alleviate the problem. When we do, we will likely meet opposition. Creatures of darkness flourish in situations like this, and they will not relinquish their prize easily. We have full protection with you here. This is the sort of thing we may have sent a teacher to do, but we believe this was important to treat young students, and it’s always nice to have someone watching your back. I just want you to be alert at all times. You are quite safe, the power of M Litt-” He cut off abruptly. He was staring at the top of the tower, which was, for some reason, no longer glowing white. “Colena,” Gil ejaculated, “When was the last time you saw the beacon on top of the school?”

“What beacon?” she said, confused.

“Exactly.”

“What beacon are you talking about?”

“The beacon. The beacon on the top of the school that lights our way back, that holds the darkness at bay, the one that Argon reconstructed during the battle last year. We should be able to see it from here.”

“I saw it when we came out.”

“Yes. Maybe it’s a trick of the light or maybe it’s just the forest. Tyrande and Festo can handle themselves. We have a job to do. They’ll do their part, we’ll do ours, just as we did last year.”

But for some reason, I had a foreboding feeling that the school - and whatever and whoever lay in it - were about to be attacked. From the inside of the school.

[I’m cutting this part out because it’s spoiling everything basically Colena told Gil that Gustav was in the school and Gil was like, bruh, that’s so not true even though it was true] “Has anyone got any questions or concerns before we head into the forest?” Gil said.

Cynthia and I climbed respective things to look around. I climbed a tree, though I wasn’t sure if it was safe. It turned out it was. I quickly climbed high enough to see around. The whole forest had leaves of this sickly dark purple colour. Wait. Not the whole forest. There was a circular black spot, about the middle of my view that was completely and utterly black. The dark colour seemed as if it wanted to slowly seep into the other trees, to corrupt them and turn them against themselves. I shivered and went back down the tree and told Gil what I saw.

“I know exactly where I’m going,” said Gil while I was up on the tree in response to a question probably asked by Colena, “We’re going to follow the irrigation trenches which lead to the spring.”

“Well we don’t,” I muttered, “And I don’t like that fact.”

Then Colena said something and Gil replied, “Only a fool thinks he knows things that are unknowable. I know what I want to do. Follow this trench, fight for Justice, and one day die in battle.

Where are you going?”

“Happy thought right there,” I said under my breath, “‘Die in battle’, of course that’s going to calm my nerves a lot. And of course, Justice is tearing children away from their homes, condemning them to a life in a solitary world and this accursed land where trouble comes wherever you go. Where would I like to go? Home. Never going to happen, is it?”

I didn’t want anyone following us into the forest so I grabbed a piece of rope and delicately set a snare. Gil gave one last concerned and inquisitive look at the tower, then waved his hand at us, and we plunged into the forest.

The air was very stuffy in there. There was a mixture of a dull buzzing and ringing in my ear, like I just had some serious head injury except there was no pain. Everything was so quiet. Then I realized it wasn’t the forest that was quiet. The forest made things in it quiet. The violet leaves overhead blocked out all sunlight with thick foliage. There was almost no light, save for a glowing fire on Gil’s shoulder. I looked around nervously, and around us, it seemed as though eyes were peering at us from every corner.

Gil looked over his shoulder and called out something that sounded like “Is everybody here?” except it was too muffled for me to understand, so I just tilted my head slightly at him, confused.

“The closer you get to me the better you’ll be able to hear me,” he said in the same muffled voice. Suggesting to stay close. No thank you. Angela, who was at the back, started walking away for some particular reason. Then something happened to Colena and she started shouting for monsters to come eat us and kill us and blah blah blah. Then everyone else started yelling at her to shut up, except it wasn’t really yelling and shouting to my ears.

But I had a pretty bad feeling that it was pretty loud for whatever was in this forest.

After lunch, we head off with my new professor and we went to meet and greet each other and after that we went off to a tour but it seems that we weren't actually being “toured” we were just asking questions while the 2nd years were answering them.After the “tour” my and my fellow 1st years went off to cast my first spell. My spell I casted was i smashed rocks on the ground.Then,a few minutes go by and we see the new members that arrived in the crucible cart so we meet them then we went to out first mission.We went into the forest and we fail to be quiet and soon enough, we realize we and being watched and stalked..

Today I met my (probably the worst) members. It took quite a long time and we had no breaks.we met Gilor and he went with 3 students Colena, Rachael, and Angela. The rest of us stayed and professor Gilor was back. He said that we can take a 20 min break. I decided to read a book. I remembered the book and soon break was done and we were brought to Colena, Rachael, and Angela. Angela zapped Chris but missed when he ducked. We saw Colena wearing a hat. Soon we were at the arena or training center or something. Cynthia passed and she was sitting or standing on some floating dust or rock. Soon it was my turn. I was sweating like crazy and Gilor summoned a headless-snow person. I tried to melt him and the heat came to my hand and went back. Soon I held out both hands and the heat came back very quickly and the headless-snow person immediately melted. I was shocked and Gilor said “Well done.” I had leveled up!!!! That was some destruction that I just did. Next we were at the tarnished plain. Then a new student joined us. We were soon in a forest. I was just getting sticks while Rachael climbed 2 or more trees. I yeeted 4/10 away and I got them back. Angela soon left us and she saw some eyes and she saw a bugbear. It came after us and we did not know. I was a bit freaking out in the forest. At least Gilor was leading us.

Michael

Class 2

Meeting each other I woke up from my nice, calm sleep. I put on some clothes and went to the elevator to go down and eat breakfast. When I sat down on the table, I saw that suddenly, there were more people at the table. I thought it was strange but just continued to eat. I was looking at the upperclassmen and my classmates, but I didn’t really say anything. It was nice to see more people. I wondered if all of them were nice and if they were in my class. After breakfast, my class and I went to have a tower tour.

Tower Tour When my class went to have a tower tour, there were 3 people(Angela, Colena, and Rachael) who were “hosting” the tour. My classmate Chris was asking some questions, and the others were either listening to them or looking around. I was looking around the tower, and sometimes listening to what they were saying. The tower was tall, and it was kind of big.

I walked and looked around me. Then, we went to have class with Prof Gilmor.

Magic class w/ Prof. Gilmor When our class met Prof. Gilmor and we went into the forest, it was really dark. Then, we stopped and Prof. Gilmor was calling random names of my classmates to do magic spells. I watched as Prof. Gilmor sent them a snowman, or a snow-creature to them. My classmates tried to hit them, reform them and more. It was cool to watch them succeed and/or fail. Then, Prof. Gilmor called my name. I walked up and he sent a snowball to me.

First Spell As he sent the snowball, I tilted my head and it went “whoosh” across my head. Then, it landed on Cynthia instead, one of my classmates. Then, I looked back at Prof. Gilmor and he said that I was really good at dodging. So, he sent a couple of snow snakes at me. I tried to melt them, but I couldn’t melt the snakes all the way, and the snakes went to me. I screamed “stop the snakes!” loudly and it stopped. Then, my turn was over and someone else was having their turn at doing the test and there was a snow creature attacking them. I decided to go and help them. So, I decided to transform the snow creature into a big hat. So I ran beside the snow creature and tried to transform it. Then, it began to grow and transform. I heard Prof. Gilmor say “Excellent work!” As he turned the snow hat into nothing.

Journey through the tarnished plains The tarnished plains was a dark place. There was a camp area. The upperclassmen are around us. It made me feel worse because I wondered what dangers there were. The ground underneath the tar was a pretty, tall, golden grass. Then, I heard some hooves. The upperclassmen and Prof. Gil stopped a Crucible cart.

Meeting the new students from The Crucible cart

When I saw The Crucible cart stopped, I was wondering if there was anything or anyone in the cart. There were 2 classmates/students. It wasn’t a long introduction, they just saw us and I just saw them. Then, those 2 classmates went into the middle of our group.

Arrival at the dark forest There were a bunch of wrecks at the entrance of the dark forest. Then, Prof. Gil said that our assignment was to clean the tarnished plains and restore the tarnished plains back to normal. Prof. Gil explained how we can restore the tarnished plains.

The Plan - the fountain remember?

The plan was about getting water from a spring. The healthy water feeds the plains and the animals who graze the plains also get healthier. “The water is supposed to flow.” said Prof.

Gil as he pointed at 2 trench-like pits. “That is the source of our problem. We will probably meet dark monsters. You are quite safe, while you are really alert.”

Entering the forest When we were entering the forest, it was very dark. We had to be very stealthy and make no sound. We were walking through the forest and we tried to be as quiet as we could.

Someone screamed and I tapped them on the shoulder and reminded them to be quiet.

Fail to be stealthy We made too much noise and we failed to be stealthy. There was a monster/creature chasing us now.

We’re being chased/hunted We’re being hunted by a creature that seems to be dark and very big. We are running through the forest now.

My character Endero didn’t talk to anyone, just chilled standing there thinking about stuff. The tower tour very cool to walk through. I was looking at the side of the wall most of the time and looking at the floor or just walking through it. Endero first class was extremely fun but scary as though it wasn’t like normal classes where they would just help you train easily but in fact they would put you in a terrifying situation then you would have to help yourself.

Endero’s first meeting with the new students was cool as though it was fun watching them come in a cart.

First time in the forest not calm looking for a certain type of water is not fun. Including the part where eyes looked at her is not fun at all, it's quite interesting seeing a pair of eyes but scary.

And oh now were being watched this is so great.

After breakfast, we were meeting some of the older students? Something like that, well whatever I think and go meet the older students and guess who it is, that girl who was talking behind the wall thing, I remember that her name is Colena from the guy with big mussels. We were doing spells?

But first we got to ask some questions and the other 2 girls didn't answer questions but did tell us about Doge Ally? It was the purple dome that we saw when going to the school, it can suppress magic from what I know so far. We go on top of a mountain where we can see some centaurs which are basically half human and half horse.

Professor Gilmor or Gill will be teaching us magic, there are 3 types, Alteration, Destruction and Illusion, today we are doing Alteration magic, when it was my turn, a snow snake or as I like to call it, a snoke, my first reaction was to turn it into a rat. The snow rat or snat landed into my hands and then bit me. I screamed ARHH in pain. I probably should have turned it into a hat or something. I did feel like I am getting better at Alteration even though I have only done it once.

After our first magic class which was very fun. Now for the not so fun part, The Tarnished Plains.

While we were walking we saw The Crucible cart with 2 people in it? I'm not sure who they were and if they almost escaped the magic school. I was too busy looking around the eerie aura.

Professor Gil told us to stay close so I just walked beside Professor Gil. While we were walking our group started to step on twigs and make noises which I could barely hear. My fingertips started tingling again, was something here? Is there danger? Who knows.

Colena Shan

Date: January 5, 3082 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae Shortly after breakfast, Professor Gilmor requested a meeting with Angela, Rachael and I. We exited the Dining Hall back to our tower, got on the Elevator and floated up to the floor with a bunch of red doors. The Alteration floor. The door in front of us said, Professor Gilmor and it was ajar. We glanced at each other, shrugged, and got off.

None of us bothered to knock on the door and entered.

“Ah!” Professor Gilmor said as he caught sight of us. “Come in.” (There was no point whatsoever in saying that as we were already inside his office.)

“Rachael. Colena. Angela. I have a special task for you this morning,” said Professor Gilmor.

We stared at him with faces that said, “What?”

“As you obviously know,” Professor Gilmor began, “the new arrivals are here, and as per tradition, their first class will be with me. I don’t need to remind you what can happen if students are ill-prepared for their first trip out into the wild—” (you mean the death of someone? Like Jerry-Rachael?) “—which is what they will be taking today. And…we have decided to take a few more steps to help ensure our students’ safety. Namely, we’re gonna be attaching a couple of Upper year students in the class to serve as a sort of…” he paused, trying to find the right word, “…guide…or mentor for them.”

“What about Marysa?” I asked. What I really wanted to know was if Gilmor had noticed “Marysa’s” odd behaviour.

“Um…yes…well, Marysa was assigned to this group. I don’t see her right now, I’ll make sure Jerry—“ he broke off. Then he shrugged and said, “Today, I’m going to give my usual demonstration to a new class and then after that, each of you are going to

demonstrate various schools of magic. Angela and I will demonstrate Alteration, Rachael is going to assist us in demonstrating Destruction, and Colena, if you would, we would really enjoy it if you gave a demonstration of the Illusionary school.”

“Wait…why can’t Marysa do Illusion? She pledged Illusion,” I said. (For some reason, it did not cross my mind to mention Ethan or Melissa, also pledged Illusion students.)

“Ideally, we would have Marysa do it, but just in case she’s not able to I would like you to do it,” Professor Gilmor replied.

“Okay…”

“She seems to have been under the weather lately. I’m a bit worried about her,” Professor Gilmor said.

No she hasn’t, I thought, she’s just trapped inside an amulet. And the Marysa you see is really Gustav. I wonder if she’s still alive?

“Well…uhh…I’m not really skilled at any type of magic as Angela, Rachael and—” “Ridiculous! I spent a whole year teaching you magic and you were quite talented….I’m…I’m sure,” Professor Gilmor interrupted.

“Eleven months is not a whole year,” I said, but he ignored this.

“Before we begin the lesson, and this was initially what we wanted…uh…you here for, Colena…we were going to have Marysa do the magical demonstration but we also need to give the first years a tour and Argon is…unable to do it right now and we thought ‘Which among us know more about this school than Colena?’ and that she would be quite well suited to help, um, orient the new students.”

BRUH. I only know plenty of the school because Rachael knew more than anyone and she told me. And I’ve also explored a bit when I spied on the second years (who were first years back then) during their classes and also because I’ve sent illusions to explore.

But the teachers couldn’t possibly know about that, could they? So why me? You guys make horrible decisions, you know that right?

“So, if you would, exit the tower at your leisure and return in about an hour’s time and you will find that the door will lead you to the first years’ tower and not your tower,” Professor Gilmor told us.

“Okay…can I go to Festo’s floor to ask him to help me with my illusion skills?” I asked.

“Yes…that might be a good idea…a little bit of preparation…that’s not a bad idea, Colena,” Professor Gilmor replied.

“Um, ah, can I do something weird right now?” Angela asked.

“I wish you would,” Professor Gilmor replied.

“I’m going to shock your hair—oh wait nevermind you don’t have any.” Angela coughed, looking embarrassed. Professor Gilmor raised his eyebrows without comment, and I had a hard time keeping my face straight.

Professor Gilmor returned to his work, and Rachael and Angela went outside the tower, while I got on the Elevator.

******* I floated two floors up, to a floor with yellow doors. The door in front of me said Sir Festo, and I got off the Elevator. I heard several voices yelling at each other inside. Probably Festo arguing with his Illusion Festos. I knocked on the door, and several voices said, “Come in!”

I entered, and saw four Festos. Sir Festo’s desk had been turned sideways in the middle of the room and a small net had been stretched across it. The Festos were swatting a ping-pong ball at each other at the ping-pong table or whatever you call it.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” I yelled.

“Oh—uh—one moment!” one of the Festos shouted. One of the Festos…duplicated, and one floated towards me.

“Ah! Yes, Colena, what can I do for you?” the Festo said.

“I need help with Illusion magic,” I explained. “Professor Gilmor wants me to demonstrate illusion to the first years in case Marysa can’t…well…uh…can’t do it…”

“Well! I was trying to say, I think Marysa would’ve been much better for the task but all right,” the Festo said cheerfully.

“You’re guiding the tour. Um…” He clapped his hands, and two of the Festos playing ping-pong vanished. “Uh… if you would be my partner?” He drifted towards the ping-pong table and I followed him.

“Okay…?” I was a bit confused.

“It’s your serve.”

Glancing around, I realized I had no ball and there was no paddle. I guessed I was supposed to make an illusion of them. I closed my eyes and tried to cast the spell (also praying that if I failed, I didn’t get the side effect that would turn me blue or 12 feet tall), but all I managed to do was to make all my hair fall off (it was a side effect. Rip).

“WHOA-OA-OAH!” Festo yelled. “Whoa….um…ooh…I just remembered, I have to be somewhere else…Good luck with that, young lady.” Then he disappeared.

I was a little embarrassed, but I decided to get a hat from my room to cover my hairless head. I hope the effects weren’t permanent. I considered using Illusion to make it look like my hair was as it usually is, but the last thing I wanted was to cause more dumb stuff to happen. So I exited Festo’s office, and headed towards the Magical Elevator. A Jerry (a dead student) saw me as I hurried by, and I had the feeling that Library Jerry would soon know and perhaps talk a bit about it. I hurried into my room, selected an ill-fitting cap, shoved it on my head, and checked my watch. 10:47 AM. I’d spent 17 minutes in Festo’s office.

******* Since I had no more business in the tower, I went outside for some fresh air. I passed Library Jerry, and instantly knew he’d heard about my magical failure, because he looked like he had just heard something good and gossip-worthy (or something like that).

Feeling slightly embarrassed again, I headed outside. Angela and Rachael were sitting on a bench, Angela cuddling Snouty and Rachael making a copy of the map of the Empire of Kahori, just finishing the Region of Imberlion.

“Hi,” I said, joining them.

“Hi…and…uh…what happened to your hair?” Rachael asked, looking up from her work.

“I’m assuming side effect,” I answered.

“Which one?” Rachael asked, pulling out a notebook. She and I had been keeping track of all the stuff that happened when someone failed a magic spell. “Is it a new one?”

“Yes. I don’t think it’s permanent though…I can feel some hair growing back,” I said. “Happened in Festo’s office while trying to create an illusion of a ping-pong paddle. Three Festos present. Not sure if any of them was the real Festo.”

Rachael opened a page in her book and wrote:

January 5, 3082 Possible Side Effect: the person who casts the spell loses all their hair Victim(s) of the Side Effect: Colena Shan Where the Side Effect(s) Happened: Festo’s Office Spell(s) Attempted before the Failure: Making a ping-pong paddle.

People present: 4, 3 Festos (possibly Illusions) and Colena.

At 11:20, we headed back inside, and saw (you know what? Rachael gave a great description, go read hers). The first years came down from the Elevator. Jerick, Grace, Justin C, Justin Z, Michael, Chris, and Cynthia walked nervously towards us.

“Hello,” I said. Rachael kept her head down and avoided eye contact with anyone, while Angela stared creepily at the first years.

“Um. Hello, lady, why did you call me short at lunch?” the boy named Chris asked, stepping forward.

“I called you small,” I responded.

“Same thing,” said Chris.

(Go read Rachael’s and she has a great explanation of the difference.)

“Is not,” I retorted.

“How dare you,” said Chris sarcastically.

“I dare do a lot of things,” I replied calmly.

“How dare you,” Chris repeated, and at this point I’m not sure if he knows what he’s saying or just speaking random crap for no reason. “Also, I have a question—what’s the purple thingy near the other purple thingy when we came here?”

“I have no idea of what you saw when you came here,” I replied, then I realized that I did have some idea of what they saw; after all, I’d made the same trip. Still, I didn’t know what he was talking about. “So—be more specific.”

“Um—like when you came in—like the—thing, like the carriage, did you see like a big purple dome with like a city in it?”

Chris said.

“Oh, right,” I said, “That sounds like the Doge Alley Barrier thing. It apparently protects the people from getting killed by magic.”

“What if little baby sheeps (okay, Angela, first of all, the plural of sheep is sheep, and second of all, what does that have to do with anything, and if it doesn’t, shut up will you this is a tour and not a display of how dumb and random and crazy you are, no offense)—” Angela interrupted, but I raised my voice to drown out the sound of hers.

“And also,” I continued, ignoring Angela’s annoying protests, “once you go in, you can’t do any magic there. I mean, I think—” “Yeah, but I also think it’s easy to—” Angela tried to interrupt but I pressed on loudly, “—there are some exceptions, I think (major emphasis on the “think”) but not Alteration, Illusion, and Destruction.”

“Yeah and I became an Influencer there,” Angela bragged, looking pleased that she had finally been able to say something without me interrupting.

“A horrible one, if I’m honest,” I retorted.

“Yeah—and—yeah. And Vanessa killed, um, what was he called again?”

Breh. You once called him your favourite and you forgot his goddamn name??

“Steve Apple,” I said irritably. “Riiiiight. And you tried to get everyone to murder Rachael.”

“Um, what do you mean by, like, Illusion and Destruction?” Chris asked.

“Those are like branches of magic,” I answered. “So bascially, Illusion’s like making random stuff seem to appear in the air, and well—I think you know the definition of Illusion. And—” “Destruction is like when you use magic to destroy stuff and—” Angela interrupted but then everyone (except Rachael and I) started talking over each other. I think Justin C said something about a stupid year but it was difficult to tell.

“Stop. STOP. Stop. STOP!” I shouted. The first years and Angela shut up at once. Finally. First time Angela ever obeyed me in something she didn’t want to do.

“Professor Gilmor will teach you Alteration today,” I said loudly. “That’s your first class. Uh, so, any other questions?”

“Yeah,” said Chris, “what did you do last—like when you came here?”

Rachael, Angela and I exchanged uncomfortable looks, but I shook my head slightly and smiled. We were all thinking the same thing, Don’t tell them anything about Gustav, Rengar, and anyone else. Perhaps just mention a few things that we saw.

“We got murdered by a couple of centaurs,” Angela answered at once.

“No you didn’t!” I snapped. “You’re still alive, you’re still breathing, and there’s no way to bring back the dead (except for the way Gustav is trying to bring Rengar back, I guess). No, last year we breathed, we walked, we existed, we talked, we ate dinner….et cetera, et cetera.”

“Oh yes, I also breathed air,” Chris said, “very cool, huh?”

“Not really,” I said.

“Right, tell me what you did now,” Chris commanded.

“I just told you!” I snapped. “I gave you a very honest and long answer!”

“Then can you not tell us what you did last year?” Chris said, getting rather frustrated.

“Absolutely. Of course. Now, what do you want to do now?” I sneered.

“Can you not not tell us what you did last year?” Chris said frustratedly.

“Yes, no, maybe, so,” I said dismissively. “Any other queries?”

“Tell us now,” Chris ordered. “‘Tell us now’ is not a question,” I said, failing to hide my amusement, “sorry. Please try again.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Chris said absentmindedly. “‘Yes, yes, yes, yes’ is not a question either,” I said cheerfully. “Please try again.”

“Yes,” Chris said stupidly.

“Ey, Colena, how’s the tour going?” Library Jerry said after two seconds of silence. “The tour? Isn’t that your job?”

“What? Professor Gilmor wasn’t very specific with the instructions,” I replied, “so maybe you can give me suggestions that actually make sense? Other than gossiping?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Library Jerry said. “So where is, like, the Entrance, tell them about how the Great Hall works, why you like—” “Great Hall?” I repeated. “Great Hall? I thought it was the Dining Hall! This is a rip off of Harry Potter!”

“Uh, blah, blah, blah,” Library Jerry said, “the Dining Hall or whatever you want to call it, I’ve never heard of that other book, this is a—” “Are you serious?” I interrupted. “You’ve never heard of the Great Hall? You love gossiping with the other Jerrys (or is it Jerries? Idk) and everywhere and you share thoughts—” “I don’t think Harry Blotter (Potter, Jerry, Potter) exists in this universe, also, there’s some teacher rooms up there, you can tell them about those and the classrooms—” “Yeah, if you want—” Library Jerry interrupted, “The—the—the—um—staff room, where they’re not allowed to go—how have you forgotten all the stuff?” I scowled. “And then show them the school grounds, and explain why there’s all these centaurs and how you failed to protect them.”

Just so you guys know, I did not fail to protect the centaurs, I wasn’t in the group; and anyways, the original mission was supposed to get rid of the things threatening the centaurs and were difficult to catch, which turned out to be the Land Sharks the second years (who were first years back then) successfully got rid of. Not anything about the black thing, is it?

“Why should I tell them about a place they’re not supposed to go to? Isn’t that just going to make them want to go there?” I snapped at Library Jerry.

“There’s some foreshadowing, Colena, maybe they’ll want to go there someday. I mean, I don’t know.”

“Uh, quick question,” Justin C interrupted, “is there an AP program in this school?”

“I think you’re going to have to ask the teachers. They’re probably going to say no, because you don’t know any magic yet,” I answered.

“Colena, why don’t you teach them a spell?” Library Jerry said.

I considered it. “Hm….no.”

“Ah, what else—I’m just asking you, you’re not supposed to do that.”

Angela attempted to electrocute Chris, which just missed and hit the wall opposite and dissolved.

“Okay, Angela, why are you trying to kill the first years?” I asked.

“Because he’s asking too many questions and we don’t want to tell them what we did,” Angela responded, still glaring at Chris.

“So what if he’s asking too many questions?” I yelled. “Just don’t answer them! It’s not a crime to ask too many questions here, Angela!”

“You do illegal things?” Chris interrupted. “Is that why you don’t want us to know?”

Bruh. Where the hell did he get such an idea?

“We don’t do illegal things—actually, I don’t really know because I’ve never read the Laws of Kahori carefully (the only Laws I have any idea of are Law 1: Obey all government decisions and don’t question any of them and Law 2: Everyone who has magic must attend M Litterae Est Magicae—the year they turn eleven—which is beyond the Conlis Mountain Range and into the Cryptic Lands), as if anyone does,” I said.

“Never put on Jerry’s helmet or you’ll die,” said Angela cheerfully.

“Oh, why did you tell them that,” I groaned, “I wanted to see them die!”

The first years looked like they were still hungry for information about what we did last year. Rachael must’ve noticed this, since she raised her head, glaring at the first years and said fiercely, “On no condition will we tell you anything that we did last year, so you might as well forget trying to make us tell you.” Which is basically polite for, Shut the [CENSORED] up, will you?

And then there was some confusion going on, a brief tour that went horribly, there were many arguments, and of course it all added up to a lot of wasted time and since we doubted there was anything better to do, I led the first years outside, followed closely by Rachael and Angela. It was now 12:40 PM, and I assumed we weren’t going to get any lunch. I was right.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky—a pleasant change after all the gloomy skies and rain. Some of the snow outside had turned to ice. I glanced towards the Great Golden Prairies. It wasn’t as golden as it had been a year ago. Something had corrupted it, and now it looked a disgusting shade of black.

Professor Gilmor walked towards us, his hands folded behind his back, and he said, “The once pristine Golden Plains, the home of our friends the centaurs” –the centaurs are not my friends, thank you very much—and— “It’s a prairie,” Rachael hissed furiously under her breath.

“—currently destitute and seeking aid from us,” Professor Gilmor was saying. I watched the centaurs, who were huddled around fires and practicing shooting arrows and stuff. Some were investigating a stack of barrels nearby, which Lady Tyrande had

informed me yesterday (when I asked) contained sticks. “That is our destination today. Well, it’s more like the route of our travel, our destination is the Dark Forest beyond—” “It’s called the Black Forest,” I muttered.

“—but we will need to cross the plains. (Again, Rachael muttered, “It’s a prairie.”) Today is the first day that you will use magic under instruction, with attention, guidance, and discipline. Magic has the power to create, manipulate, and empower its user.”

It was a rather boring speech (no offense, Gil), and I doubted if any of the first years listened to half of it.

Professor Gilmor held out his hand, and a stick shot out of a barrel and into his hand. “It also,” he continued, “has the power to destroy.” He threw it in the air, and it exploded into tiny splinters that floated to the ground.

“There are three schools of magic,” Gil said, “and they will be demonstrated to you today (ah shoot, here’s the part where Angela, Rachael and I come in) though you will only receive training in one. The school of Alteration allows you to change the world around you.” As he spoke, all of the other sticks floated out of the air as well, and started whacking each other like crazy. “Creativity is your staunchest ally.” The barrel began to glow red, and melted completely into the snow. Two long chains floated out from the mess that was left, and it wrapped around his fists, and as all the sticks went flying at them, he smashed them all to pieces, which left splinters on the snow. He shook his hands, and the pieces of the barrel decided to stop clinging to his hand and dropped onto the ground.

“Today I will be teaching you how to alter the world around you,” he said. “We will place you in a moderately stressful situation (guess what, his definition of a “moderately stressful situation” is avoiding snowballs and the snowballs are perfectly normal, they don’t kill or burn or injure anyone they hit) and see how you perform. We have brought a couple of students from your upper year to help shepherd you and guide you, and we’re going to get a brief demonstration of a spell from their chosen school of magic.”

Angela was obviously not listening to this lecture, because she didn’t demonstrate anything “creative”. It was supposed to be Angela tries to attack Rachael with Alteration, Rachael protects herself with Destruction. Then Angela tries to attack me with Alteration, I protect myself with Illusion. Ezpz.

Angela decided to do the classic lightning, which caught Rachael by surprise, aiming straight for her face. Rachael swiftly waved her hands and clenched it into a fist, which shielded her from the lightning. The lightning bounced off and disappeared in the sky. As soon as the danger had passed, Rachael shook her arm out, wincing slightly.

“I thought she’d be more creative than that,” Rachael muttered to me, scowling.

My turn. Shoot. Angela is much better in Alteration than I am in any school of magic. I decided to turn invisible, so Angela couldn’t see me. And since I was so focused on getting the spell right, I totally forgot about the snow, which would give me away. And no, I couldn’t cast two illusion spells at once, so I couldn’t hide my footprints either.

I managed to turn invisible before Angela could attack, and in the precious few seconds I had before Angela turned her head, concentrating on lifting 12 stones intended to turn me into a human pancake, I considered the Ethereal Plane. But nah, I decided not to. I didn’t want the first years knowing about it. So I tried to avoid the stones, but one caught me on the shoulder, and I hissed through gritted teeth, “Oof.” I became visible again, and Gil said, “Uh—wonderful—wonderful. Thank you for the demonstration everybody.”

I glanced at my shoulder. The cut wasn’t too deep.

“Jerick,” Gil called. A boy walked forward. “Good. Good.” Gil lifted his hand and a small, smooth rock started levitating in the air.

“THINK FAST!” Gil yelled. The rock flew towards him, and Jerick ducked, snatching the rock out of thin air.

“Uh—well okay, good, but do something magical with it,” Professor Gilmor said, slightly annoyed and restraining himself from yelling, “USE MAGIC IN MAGIC SCHOOL!” Jerick stared at the rock in his hand, concentrated, and the rock split into two with a satisfying noise.

“Wonderful work,” Gilmor said, sounding pleased, “very good.

“Grace.” A girl stepped up. Professor Gilmor threw a snowball at her. I was like WTF. How is this a “moderately stressful situation”? “Think fast!”

Grace ducked easily, which ended up hitting another girl behind her, named Cynthia, who was also the one who chucked the roll at me.

“Okay, everybody here is really good at dodging, stop that,” Gilmor said, annoyed. “Snakes!” He snapped his fingers, and a snake appeared, made of snow. Let’s just call it a Snow Snake.

Grace attempted to melt it, which is quite logical since snow melts. She failed. Then she looked confused. She tried to freeze it, and ended up having to shout when she spoke. Rachael took out her Side Effects notebook, and scribbled next to victims of the Side Effect: Shout when you speak, the name Grace. Angela and I stifled our laughs, but just barely, and we could hardly keep our faces straight. (“That’s quite rude of you, you know,” Rachael snapped at us.)

“STOP SENDING A SNAKE AT ME!” she shouted.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Gilmor said, and the snake collapsed.

“That’s a magical side effect,” I explained, still trying hard not to laugh. (“You know you’re being rude, don’t you?” Rachael hissed at me.)

“Ah, yes. When spells go wrong, sometimes bad things can happen. Thank you very much Grace. Uh, Cynthia—sorry about the snowball, what would you like to fight?” Without waiting for an answer, Gilmor said, “Hmm…think fast!”

What else do you say other than “Think fast”, and “Use magic in magic school”? Also, what was the point of asking her if you don’t want an answer??

The ground beneath Cynthia began to fall. She concentrated as she was falling, then shot upwards 15 feet above the ground on a pillar of dirt, without any means of getting down. She could jump down I guess, fifteen feet isn’t a great distance to fall.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Centaurs were clapping at this, apparently impressed by this.

“Must be a nice view up there,” Rachael said, glancing up at Cynthia.

“Chris!” Professor Gil looked at the boy who had yelled nonsense at me during breakfast. “Think fast.”

Chris got the snow snake. It glared at him with its empty eyes. It slithered swiftly through the snow, lunging at Chris, who turned it into a rat made of snow, landed on his hand with a squeal, and bit Chris. He muttered, “Ow” and thrust it on the ground, where it becamse snow again. He inspected the bite, shrugging.

“Uh—pretty good—yeah—pretty good. Maybe something with less teeth next time,” Professor Gilmor said. “But good, good.

Michael!” A boy nodded nervously at him. Gilmor waved his hand, and a er—the best description would be a headless snowman walked towards Michael, looking quite threatening. Michael extended his hands towards it, looking unsure of himself. Ten whole seconds later, fire shot out of Michael’s hands, and the snowman melted.

“Wow,” Gilmor said. He nodded at one of the Justins, who also got a headless snowman to fight. Terrified, the boy stumbled through eight inch deep snow.

“Does he really think he can outrun a snowman in the snow?” Gil said, flicking his finger at the snowman, which picked up speed, quickly gaining on Justin Z (I think it was him), driving him off the school grounds. It was quite entertaining to watch, and I had to struggle to keep my face straight, although Rachael was too busy watching Justin Z getting chased to tell me off.

Gilmor looked at Justin C. Yet another deformed snow creature. Justin C somehow made a flamethrower out of snow, which is quite illogical but who cares, which hit the creature in the chest and thawed a large hole in it.

Justin Z was failing to fend off the creature he was facing. Michael was yelling, “I’m never going to help you!” which wasn’t very nice of him. Justin Z ran towards the centaurs’ camp, where there were a whole bunch of bows and quivers. He snatched an arrow and a bow as he sped past it, somehow still ahead of the headless snowman, slowed down slightly so he could nock the arrow, drew the string back, and fired. It missed, because a) Justin Z was not good at archery b) it’s rather difficult to aim properly when you’re scared c) it’s rather difficult to aim properly when you’re running and d) it’s difficult to aim properly when you think you’re gonna die. Oh well. You live, you experience, and you learn.

Grace ran towards Justin Z, probably wanting to help, and the headless snowman grew larger and larger until Gilmor said, “Excellent,” and the headless snowman turned back into a gigantic heap of snow, falling on the wheezing Justin and spraying a bit on Grace.

After Justin Z caught his breath, we headed towards the Great Golden Prairies. Professor Gilmor informed Rachael, Angela and I about two more students that were still being tracked down by the Crucible. And Marysa was missing. So only 80% of everyone were there.

I glanced back at the Beacon that shone brightly in the sky, sitting on the top of the tower. It was designed by Argon to always light the way back, so you knew the way to the school. The light of the Beacon could penetrate most types of magical darkness, but certainly not all. Figuring we’d get back anyway without the aid of a beacon, I wasn’t too worried about going to places where we couldn’t see the light.

“Marysa must be sick,” Gil decided. Rachael and I exchanged brief looks. Maybe.

I’ll try telling Professor Gilmor today, I thought, about Marysa. It turned out to be a horrible idea.

We soon came across a campfire that Rachael examined closely.

“Burnt a long time ago—no embers—makeshift hut nearby, suggests whoever lived or lives here traveled often—place where we met Argon,” she muttered.

We continued on our journey.

“Alright—Angela—Rachael—Colena—one of you stay to the left of the first years—another on the right—and the other in the back please—I’ll stay in front—move aside—” Professor Gilmor instructed.

I immediately headed to the right, glancing around cautiously. Angela let all the first years pass her, guarding the rear. Rachael took up the left.

The first years looked slightly confused when we surrounded them with grim looks (well, Angela was grinning for no reason but the first years didn’t look behind them), but they asked no questions. Good. And it was silent for a while.

As we reached where the school grounds and the prairies bordered one another, Gilmor stopped, tapping his staff (I think I should tell you that Professor Gil has a lot of staffs, and often carries one. His favourite one had been burnt by Kylie due to a Side Effect—Burn anything you touch for an undetermined amount of time) on the ground in front of him, and the darkness peeled away with some resistance to both sides, something keeping back the evil stuff.

I noticed that Rachael paused to pick up some goldenrod flowers from the field. Probably to help with injuries we might get along the way. Though I’m not sure if it’s gonna be a good idea if the flowers came from the corrupted Prairies. She stuffed them into her bag which also contained the notebook that she wrote all the Side Effects on.

******* About ninety minutes later, we heard hoofbeats, growing louder and louder. For a moment, I thought they were corrupted centaurs, before realizing that this was only two or three of them, and the centaurs attacked in herds. So it was probably horses.

Apparently, Gilmor didn’t think so. “Corrupted centaurs,” he said to Angela, Rachael and I, “take your positions. Protect the new arrivals at all costs.”

They don’t need protecting as long as you’re not useless.

Three seconds later, two horses appeared out of the darkness. They were dark black, groomed well, and had horse collars with gems (wow, fancy), and the horse harnesses were black as well. Kind of like the Crucible, who also were black all over.

The horses were pulling a carriage behind them that was fixed with a golden lock. Two terrified faces appeared at the window.

These must be the two kids who are supposed to be picked up by the Crucible, I thought.

“After them!” Gilmor shouted. Angela waved her hand, and a force field appeared around the carriage. Rachael flicked her hand and did something, but I wasn’t paying much attention to either of them.

Once Angela removed the force field, or when it disappeared, Professor Gilmor walked up to the carriage and made some gestures with his hands, and after five, six minutes, he tore the lock off, and opened the door, and William and Kaedan, the two first years, stumbled out, shaking.

Rachael looked away as Gilmor muttered, “Hope you’re all right” and explained the situation to the boys.

Shortly afterwards, we came to a place the second years recognized. A hut made of wood, the door ajar. A cart that was tipped over was lying next to it, evidently pillaged. I remembered the time when I was spying on the second years, who were first years back then, on their first mission with the strict and blue-skinned Lady Tyrande, and smirking as Melissa ran over to get stuff from the cart, much to the annoyance and disapproval of Tyrande and Rowan, a centaur, Kylie digging a hole to investigate the land shark stuff, following Marysa when she went inside the hut and discovered a torch and exited the hut and showed Tyrande what she found, and glancing up at Vanessa when she had stood on the ridge. Oh and of course Angela jumping up and down when she was specifically instructed not to.

“For today’s assignment,” Gilmor said, “it is straightforward, but quite important. Our mission is to cleans the corruption of the tarnished plains. To put them back the way they were.” He paused for a moment.

“How are we supposed to do that?” I asked.

“I was about to tell you,” Gil said, with a hint of impatience in his voice. “Inside the Black Forest, there is a spring. And from this spring, nourishing, cleansing water has always been harnessed by the centaurs to nourish their own environment. The water from these nourishes these plains—” (“It. Is. A. Prairie,” Rachael hissed.) “—keeping them robust, strong, healthy, full of nutrients, and the animals that graze the plain—” (Again, Rachael muttered that it was a prairie) “—in turn, are helping the forest, and the centaurs have grown stronger because of this. I believe this is the solution. There exists a fountain that could cure all of this. And its waters are supposed to flow through carefully constructed irrigation channels.”

He pointed at two streams, which I assumed were supposed to have clear, running water. It did have running water, but the water was a shade of dark black. Almost like oil…

“That,” Professor Gilmor explained, “is the source of our problem. We’re going to venture into the forest, and do what we can to alleviate the problem. When we do, we will likely meet opposition. Creatures of darkness flourish in situations like this, and they will not relinquish their prize easily. We have full protection with you here. This is the sort of thing we may have sent a teacher to do, but we believe this was important to treat young students, and it’s always nice to have someone watching your back. I just want you to be alert at all times. You are quite safe, the power of M Litterae—” He suddenly stopped speaking. He was glancing nervously at the top of the tower, which was no longer glowing white.

“Colena,” he said, turning to me, “when was the last time you saw the beacon on top of the school?”

“What beacon?” I said blankly.

“Exactly.”

“What beacon are you talking about?” I said, slightly confused.

“The beacon on the top of the school that lights our way back, that holds the darkness at bay, the one that Argon reconstructed duing the battle last year. We should be able to see it from here,” Gil said.

“Oh…I…well…didn’t…wasn’t it visible when we came out?” I stammered.

“Yes. Maybe it’s a trick of the light or it’s just the forest. Tyrande and Festo can look after themselves. We have a job to do.

They’ll do their part, we’ll do ours, just as we did last year.”

What the heck does last year have to do with this?

I shivered, but not from the cold. This was a bit unsettling. I had a feeling Gustav would make his move when we were out tonight. Two teachers were easier to take on than three. I exchanged an uneasy glance with Rachael, who was biting her lip.

[Okay, this part is not gonna be described in full as it’s a huge spoiler and I regret ever doing this, but Gilmor asked us if we had any concerns and whatnot and I said yes and told him about Marysa and he was like, “Where the hell did you get such nonsense and why didn’t you tell us earlier and when did you find out?” and I answered all his queries, “I saw it, and I wanted to see if you could tell and weren’t blind and stupid, and also, I found out on January 30, 3081” and Gilmor refused to believe it so he’s now officially the dumbest person I know, but Tyrande and Festo turned out to be just as stupid later. Now I said more than I intended to them, and I’m praying the first years forget everything I said.]

The forest seemed to affect our hearing as well as our sight. I could see no more than 10 feet in any direction, and when anyone spoke, it sounded like they were whispering, even if they were actually yelling their head off.

Cynthia and Rachael climbed a tree and a rock to have a quick look around. I don’t know exactly what they saw, and neither told me, but I assumed they could see most or all of the entire forest. Rachael stumbled down from her tree after twelve minutes and forty-three seconds (yeah, I was counting, because I could think of nothing else to do) and explained to Gilmor what she saw.

“Most of the forest has trees with leaves of the same shade of dark purple. However, in the very center, there’s a large, circular black spot. It seems to be the source of the corruption,” she said to Gil. “How much longer til we get to this fountain—er –I mean spring?” I asked to Gilmor after a while.

“Did you just say “how much longer”?” Gil said.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and screamed, “YES! AND ALSO, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING? BECAUSE I DON’T THINK YOU DO!” “I know exactly where I’m going,” Gilmor snapped at me.

“Er…well…only a fool thinks he knows the unknowable,” I said, trying to say something he said fifteen minutes previously.

“Only a fool thinks he knows things that are unknowable. I know what I want to do. Follow this trench, fight for Justice, and one day die in battle. Where are you going?” he said.

Fight for Justice? I rolled my eyes. Die in battle? Well, I do hope that’s soon for him. And fight for Justice—the very thing that separates families with magic apart, because of the fear of the stupid new Empire?Amazing idea. A bright future for you, Gil, I thought sarcastically.

I think I might just get life over with, but I didn’t say that to Gilmor.

Rachael muttered some concerns about being followed and set a snare. Gilmor glanced at the tower one last time, and told us to follow him.

******* The forest was dark and creepy. The only light we had was a small fire-ish thing on Gil’s shoulder.

“Is everybody here?” Gil yelled after a couple of minutes, but I only just barely made out what he said.

Most of the students didn’t seem to be able to hear this and looked confused. Rachael tilted her head slightly.

“Yes!” I shouted.

“The closer you get to me the better you’ll be able to hear me,” he said, “so stay close.”

“What did you say?” Angela yelled from the back—sounding a little less muffled than Gilmor since she was closer to me.

“As soon as Gil repeats that she’s gonna do the complete opposite,” I muttered.

And, just like I predicted, after Gilmor repeated what he said, Angela immediately declared, “I’m going to do the total opposite!” and started backing away from us. Gil didn’t notice, because if he did, he’d most likely dragged her back or at least told her off.

It was getting boring, so I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted, “HEY! MONSTERS OF THIS FOREST, I AM ASKING YOU TO COME AND KILL US. PREFERABLY QUICKLY, AS SWIFT DEATHS ARE BETTER THAN LONG AND PAINFUL ONES! BUT ANYWAYS, COME AND ATTACK US! OUR TEACHER SUCKS AND WON’T DO ANYTHING—” Gil spun around and glared at me but I continued, “—SO FEAR NO RESISTANCE!” Of course, the first years didn’t like it.

They all told me to shut up.

I didn’t listen to any of them.

Little did I know that a large creature was approaching us silently, with plans to eat me…even though it preferred sandwiches.

JUST ANGELA -.-

-Angela

I definitely wrote something

After a warm breakfast, Professor Guill calls Rachael, Colena and me up for a meeting. We go up the lift until we reach the floor with several red doors, we hop out and knock on the door that says Professor Guill. He opens it and we come in. “So as you should know by now, the first years have arrived and sometimes, they will underestimate what they can do. So, I would like you guys to show them some magic. Me and Tokyo will do alliteration, Rachael shall do destruction, and Colena it will be best if you can do ilusion.”

Professor Guill explains. “But I don’t know how to do illusion magic, can’t Myrasa do illusion because she is in that house of magic.” Colena asked “Yes that's what I thought too and have you give them a tour around the school but I’m afraid Myrasa is not able to perform at the moment so it would be unwise to let her perform. Now, class should be starting in 40 minutes so I suggest you guys all get ready and head down to the main door of the tower when you’re done.

We leave his office and Colena suggests we go up to Sir Festo’s door and he can teach Colena illusion magic. We go up on the lift again to a floor with multiple yellow doors.

As we go up to his floor, we hear several Festos arguing which quiet down after we knock.

“Come in,” one of the Festo said. We walk in and they seem to be in the middle of a game that uses a net. “How can I help you?” Sir Festo asked. “Well, Professor Guill told me to show the first years illusion magic but I don’t know it so I need you to teach me.” Colena said. “Well, I did recommend for Myrasa to do that but uhh… sure. Sir Festo hands the other Festo a ball but no paddle and says “your turn. “Wait, I can try to conjure a paddle.” she concentrated however, it most likely failed as all of the hair on her head fell off.

“Ahhhhh!” Festo shrieked. “U-um… r-right I-i just remembered I have to ah… do something. He shooed us out the door and shut it. “I think we should head down now” I suggested trying really hard for my eyes not to go to the rather bald Colena. “Yeah, but let me go to my dorm for a hat real quick,” Colena said and she hopped on the lift. After she was gone, Rachael and I hopped on and went to the main entrance of the tower. Colena comes down a few seconds later with a hat I’ve never seen her wear.

After a few minutes, a group of kids come down looking a little nervous. I stood there and stared at them while Colena said “Hello”. Colena and I then started answering some questions from the first years. We then realize we were not actually giving them a

tour like we were told to. Jerry then asks “Colena how is the tour going?” Colena says “there were no specific Instructions so I don't know.” “Well you can show them the dining hall, the dorms, the library, and the teachers room.” Jerry suggested “Can I zap you with lightning?” I asked the kid who kept on appearing and disappearing this morning at breakfast who I now know as Chris. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “Okay then,” I decided to send a flash of electricity just above his head. After a few minutes, me and the upper years lead the new students out of the tower outside.

We continue walking towards our school's courtyard and we see a black cloud and a volcano in the distance, as well as a dense forest. We wait at the school's courtyard for Professor Guill to come. Soon, Professor Guill comes towards us with his hands behind his back. He looked at the black tar plains and cleared his throat, “ A constant reminder of the battle we had.” he said looking at the black field of goo.

“Our dear friends, Centaurs, used to live here.” - when he saw the first years looking rather confused - “Until darkness took over.” He cleared his throat again before explaining what we were doing today, “Today is the first day you will do magic under supervision.”

Guill told them while showing the first years what each house of magic can do, also explaining what each type of magic does. “Today I will be teaching you alliteration, and one upper student from each house house will demonstrate a spell of their choosing.

“Tokyo will do an alliteration spell at Rachael, Rachael will do a destruction magic to defend herself, and then Angela will go another alliteration spell at Colena who will use illusion to protect herself as well. Understand?” he didn’t bother waiting for an answer as he pointed at me. I gather the static electricity around me and focus it in my hands, a burst of lightning fricks out of my hands and Racheal freezes for a second but then raises her arms and makes a half shield around herself. The first years wowed at our presentation.

For Colena I decide to shower her with a meteor shower but when I turn towards her she is invisible, the rocks smash the ground where she was but I have no clue where Colena is. Oh well Sooner or later she appeared.

“Now you guys,” - he points at the first years - “Will try, Jerrick!” he calls. A boy walked forward. “Think fast!” Guill warns before waving a rock at him. Jerrick catches it, “Good but, try to use magic” Guill asks. After a few seconds of consideration, he crushes the rock before smashing it on the ground.

Jerrick returns to his classmates and a girl named Grace is next. Professor Guill heaves a snowball at Grace, and she dodges it making the snowball hit a girl named Cynthia. Next, he makes a snow snake and Grace tries to freeze it, however mid movement, Grace turns at me. “STOP CONTROLLING THE SNAKE!” she bellowed. “Huh?” I said. “Okay nevermind,” Guill claps his hands and the snake disappeared.

Cynthia was next and the ground beneath her starts to crumble; she starts to sink into the ground but then a few seconds later, erupts from the ground on a 50 feet dirt pillar. Many centaurs turned around to see what was happening. They clapped and seemed very impressed.

“Chris.” Guill calls out. Chris steps forward. A gigantic snake lunges at Chris. He turns The snake into a snow rat which bites him. “UGH!” he groans and thrashes until the rat falls off. A boy named Michael was next, Guill made a towering snowman charge at him, he tried to do something, but it didn't work, so at the last second, fire erupted out of his hands melting the snowman until all that was left was a few buttons and a burnt carrot. “Very good!” Professor Guill applauded.

“Justin Z”. A boy stepped forward and Guill made another massive snowman sprinting towards him, Justin.Z took off running across the plains. “Does he really think he can out run a snowman?” Guill chuckles, and makes the snowman go even faster chasing Justin.Z all over the place.

“Justin.C now is it.” Guill asks. Justin.C jogs over and melts the enormous pile of snow falling towards him with a flamethrower. In the distance, we see Justin.Z getting grabbed by the snowman, Grace runs over and turns the snowman into a hat. “Excellent Grace!” Guill cheered. Justin.Z walks over to us and joins the rest of his class.

“Now, it is time to go on our mission, everyone follow me” he instructed. We follow him to the golden plains which looks more like it should be called the Gloomy, Dreadful, Dying Plains at the moment. However, when Guill splits the tar and makes an around 4 feet path, I see the glow from the Golden, luscious grass. Colena takes the top right, Rachael takes the top left, and I stalk closely behind. We hear shouts and commands we don’t understand and it seems like the centaurs were hunting something.

Thick mist is everywhere and after around an hour and a half, we hear hooves galloping towards us. Guil calls out to me, Colena, and Rachael, “Centaurs, prepare your

positions. Protect the first years at all costs. We take our places and as the mist clears, we realize the horses did not have a torso. They were just normal horses dragging a cart behind them. “Stop the cart.” Professor Guill ordered. I make a force field around both carts and blue strings shoot out of Rachaels hands, sending the horses free. Guill shatters the lock although it took him a few tries and tears of the door to see two new little students.

They step out and look at us. “U-um w-well. Hello guys now we are on our way to a mission and your two appear to be late arrivals. However, I can not send you back because we are on our way to somewhere important and I also can’t call someone from the tower so, your guys will have to come along with us. They join the group and after 10 minutes we finally step on solid ground. I let out a long breath of relief but I knew we were not done yet.

“We’ve arrived,” Guill announces. “Inside the forest there is a spring which holds the water that nourishes the golden plains. These rivers are also suppose to nourish the plains but right now they don’t” he points to to black nasty rivers on each side of the plains We are going to venture into the forest” he pauses as black fog surrounded our school “Colena, when was the last time you saw the beacon?” Guill asks, still staring at the dark fog. “I saw it when we came out,”Colena replied. Professor Guill frowned.

“Anyway well Lady Tyrande and Festo can handle themselves right now we need to do our mission.”

Racheal and Cynthia start climbing trees to see if they can see anything, and after one more look at the school we head into the forest. The trees darken the sun and voices are muffled and quiet. “Can everyone hear me?” Guill asks. I barely heard him as he said “try to stay close and be quiet.” I decided to do the complete opposite so I turned the opposite direction and walked.

I turn to Colena screaming at the top of her lungs. I also see all my classmates screaming at the top of their lungs at Colena to be quiet though I don’t hear their screams.

It wondered if this is what it was like to be deaf. My classmates sneak quietly the opposite way as quietly as possible. I go the other way just to see a gigantic fluffy killing machine.

That's when I realized even though we think we are being quiet, the predators in this forest can probably hear as loud and clear the creature sneaks very quietly and I know exactly what it is A bug bear

It stares at me for a second before it lurks behind my classmates.

I definitely wrote something

-Angela

After seeing the bug bear go, I stomp towards Professor Guill. “I saw a small white furball the size of a paper clip” I told him. “A moth?” he questions. “NO A WHITE FURBALL THE SIZE OF A PAPER CLIP” I yelled. Surprisingly, he believes me, “Okay, well keep a watch on it and thanks for telling me Tokyo.” he instructed. “What type of joke is that?” Colena asked me. “A knock knock joke.” “Yeah right” she answered but didn’t say anything else. I decided to join my classmates as we headed deeper into the Dark Forest. After another 15 minutes of hiking over roots and fallen tree trucks, we hear the sound of water.

Justin.Z calls us over, he leaned above a small trench of black gooey water flowing in the direction we came and a dirty black pipe. Guill takes a water bottle from his backpack, drinks the remaining and samples a little of the “water” in his water bottle. He then pours the thick honey-ish “water” onto a small patch of grass that darkens and wilters as soon as it makes contact with the liquid. I hear the slightest little movement in the branches behind us. I turn to see 2 pairs of deep yellow eyes staring at me which disappear after it notices me looking at it.

The Bug Bear I walk towards the direction where I saw him, Colena, Cynthia, and Justin.C follow me. Colena tried to tell me something and when I didn’t hear her, she tried to cast a spell on me which I assume failed as pink and blue butterflies fluttered around her. I chuckled when I saw her glare so I decided to make a force field around her. Success rewarded me as a dim blue force field wrapped itself around Colena. Cynthia takes some mud and throws it at the bushes. The branches rustled but nothing else happened. I guess Justin.C thought it was boring or something as he left and went back to the group.

As I turned back to see Justin.C leave, my eyes focused on Colena who was making her way towards me trying to run in the tall bushes. My brain reminded me that anything that touches a force field will disintegrate. With that in mind, I sprint towards Colena and we both smack into each other causing a bright blue flash as I get knocked out and become unconscious.

As I regained consciousness, I wasn’t sure how long I was knocked out as the tall tree reaching for the sky covered all traces of the sun. What I do see is a big wall about 15 feet high and 20 feet in width stretched across with combat noises on the other side.

I stumble to my feet and walk across the wall to see the ginormous bug bear. Now that I got a clear view of him, he was even bigger than I thought and kind of looked like a humongous big foot. One of his feet was tied with branches and vines and he was snarling and Professor Guill who stood a few feet away from the monstrous creature staff raised, breathing quite heavily. “Hi Bug Bear!” I said. The creature whips its gigantic head towards me and roars. “Be careful Tokyo,” Professor Guill warns. “Oh you're just weak” I teased before facing the Bug Bear.

I reached down to take a thin stick and tied it. “Do you want a friendship bracelet?” I asked. Weirdly, it relaxes, “it's a friendship bracelet, do you want it?” I asked again while taking a cautious step forward. I turn at Guill who looks like he will beat the living life out of that thing if it does anything kind of dangerous. I reached my arm out and he copied me! I take the bracelet and slide it gently up his hand. “See, a bracelet!” I smiled. He grins back at me even though it wasn;t the best sight as it showed his enormous teeth.

I offered him a sandwich, he takes it slowly and makes a few happy noises as he eats it. I reach in my bag to pull out another one, “Now, if you don’t eat anymore people, I’ll give you another sandwich.” I said, trying to make a deal. “Yeah, but the loud one was trying to get eaten,” he argued. I realized he was talking about Colena. “Oh sorry, don’t mind her, she's just a maniac friend.” I apologize. “Well if a sandwich is asking you, hey please eat me, won’t you eat it?” he said. “I guess,” I reluctantly said.

I gave him a few more sandwiches anyway, when he was done, I asked. “Do you have a name?” “Ahh! I do have a name! That is very kind of you to ask, my name is Blart!”

“Blart?” I repeated making sure I got it correctly. “Yes Blart! Uhh… What is your name?” he asked. “My name is Tokyo,” I replied. “Tokyo? That's a weird name but uh hi Tokyo.” “You know what, you can just call me Blurt!” I suggested. “Ahh Blurt, that is a good name, a strong name!” he complimented. I undid that spell that was chaining his feet and mw and Blart chatted until Cynthia jumped up on the wall and said “Hi!”.

Blart looks at Cynthia and snarls. “Oh Blart it's fine this is my friend Cynthia” Blart stops growling and asks “what name?” “Cynthia says,”That.” “Does that have sandwich” Blart asks. Cynthia gives Blart a few sandwiches which he devores gratefully. “Does that need directions, you seem lost” Blart asks. Cynthia says “no”. Guill turns to the bug bear lowers his staff and says “yes”. “Where” Blart asks. Guill was about to say something when he signed “ahh”. We turn to see 3 giant trees walking towards us. I wave my arms towards the trees and one tree explodes in flames

“Come on Blart! Run!'' I said. “NO!” he snarled and punched the tree into teeny tiny splinters. Cynthia tries to do something but fails. So Guill waves his arms and the last tree breaks in half After the last tree falls, new smaller ones grow out as well as Grace running for her life towards us. Grace explodes the other trees and joins us. “Where are the other students'' Guill asks and Blart leads us deeper into the forest but then stops. “Why are we stopping?” Guill asks. “The plant eats people” Blart said but continued deeper, after a few minutes, we see purple flecks of lavender pollen. Blart puts his arm over his mouth and nose “Don’t breathe the things kill by dust” Blart warned. We all copy Blart, soon we see all of our classmates playing in black oil and a humongous venus fly trap towering over them.

“What the heck” I asks. We then see Rachael climbing on the vine of the trap. Then Colena gets out of the pond and pushes Rachael off and climbs on herself “Me first” she says.The vine picks her up and dangles her just above the fly trap’s mouth.“What's going on? Blart?” Cynthia says. “They're getting mind controlled by the pollen, they think it’s nice, you guys should do something” Blart explains. I shoot a stream of lightning at Colena which knocks her out of the daze of the plant. Rachael climbs on once again and grabs the vine of the venus fly trap looking plant. I try to use magic again to push her off but instead of pushing her out of the magic area, I push her back into the pond. She takes a mouthful of the disgusting black water.

Then, I think she realized as she coughed and gagged at nasty water and as she looked up at the monturious mouth, her eyes filled with terror.

After that, Rachael clambers out of the fountain Phew Then she waves her hands and a massive blue field occurs across the surface of the fountain and severs the roots of the plant. The plant roars and lurches towards rachael who dives to the side The plant snaps towards her and drags part of her body threw the force field The force field shatters and all my classmates seem to realize they were in a black pond Jerrick climbs out off the pond and casts fire towards the part of the plant which screams while Grace pushes several of her classmates away from the pool. Justin.C takes off and runs quickly followed by Justin.Z and another first year student whose name is Haolin.

Cynthia summons a fire thing to attack the plant. Chris conjured a snow rat that leaps towards the plant and bites it.

Colena then attempts to do something and beautiful butterflies drift around her and it was not even needed as the plant no poses no threat to us. Guill seems pleased as he tucks his staff away “Wow you kids are- that's pretty cool” Blart says. “Wow I can’t believe I tried to kill you.” “PLEASE KILL ME!” Colena asks. “Uhhhhh… no sorry” Blart says taking a step away “No, I insist!” Colena pleaded. “No, I just want to give my sincere apologies'' he says.

The plant vanishes and the water starts to clear, slowly at first, but it picks up as we all look at it. Guill nods at it and smiles “There maybe ways we can help this along, but if we leave now, eventually nature will heal”

SESSION THREE

The Black Forest

Rachael January 5, 2021 kay, guys, here’s a tip: DON’T YELL AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS IN A FOREST WHERE OTHERS CAN HEAR THINGS THAT YOU CAN’T AND YOU KNOW THERE ARE OTHERS. It’s definitely not a good idea. And Destruction-made shields knock people out when you deliberately ram into them, did you know that (cough cough I’m not looking at you at all, Colena, you totally didn’t do it cough cough)? Uh, so anyway. We had things attacking us, which wasn’t so great. We were being watched by those things, which also wasn’t so great. That thing probably was intent on killing us, which added additional pressure.

Nice.

Angela decided to come back and stop wandering off to random places. That was probably the first good idea she had, because her ideas usually - well - weren’t the best. This time - well I should say partially good idea because she stomped back to us and screamed as loud as she could that there was a giant furball following us. Except it was probably screaming for whatever lurked in this place, but not us.

It just sounded like someone talking loudly. Unnecessary, Angela.

“Keep your voice down!” Gil said, “I can hear you! You’re close enough! You saw a moth? What was it?”

Alright, who said to keep your voice down when you distinguished the word “furball” as “moth”?

I mean, does “furball” sound anything like “moth”?

“No, I didn’t see a moth,” Angela said, “I saw a white furball the size of a paper foot.”

Okay, what?

“Good,” Gil said, as if he didn’t quite believe her, “Keep an eye on the younger students, alright?”

“What kind of joke is that?” Colena said in a very exasperated tone.

“A knock knock joke,” Angela replied with a rather deadly smile.

“Is not,” Colena snapped.

“Thank you, Miss Optimism and Miss Cheerful,” I muttered.

And on that not-so happy note, we cut our way further through the underbrush and the light fell behind us.

There was a trickle of water. Not reassuring at all.

“Are we close?” Colena asked.

“We must be, or else we wouldn’t be hearing it,” Gil said, with a bit of annoyance. “Fan out. Find it.”

“For what? The spring?”

“Well...not the spring, it’s too far. We’re looking for the irrigation trench. That’s what the centaurs use to bring water from the fountain to the Golden Plains. And that’s what will lead us to the fountain.”

“We get it,” I muttered, “Now do us a favour and shut your mouth for a couple of seconds.”

One of the Justins found it. It was a small, jaggedly cut channel, filled with oily black water that was of the worst quality of water you could find, unless you wanted to try to set fire to it, which I don’t recommend. Not that I’ve ever tried it, of course, just - well, you know, oil and fire like each other too enthusiastically. So much for the word “irrigation”. The channel flowed slowly - a little too slowly for a

normal river coming from a spring. The oil was too slippery to be just black water. It had a broiling look to it, and a malicious feeling, just like the tar in the prairies. I shivered.

Gil reached into a small pack that was slung over his shoulder, and pulled out a bottle of water.

There was less than half remaining of it, and I wondered if all this time that Angela had been scouting for “furballs shaped like paper feet” he’d been calmingly drinking water. He drained it in two gulps or so (guys, please take care to not scold me because I didn’t count exactly how many sips he took, I don’t specialize in counting those things. And Colena, laughing at me right here is not going to be helpful). He then stooped and filled the bottle with oil-water from the stream. He tilted it, but it came too slow to be water. It dripped like syrup or honey would, a very slow moving, thick liquid. Not good. Definitely not good. Gil made a face that was sort of like a grimace as the honey-oil-water-liquid-thingy splashed onto the grass and turned all of it slowly black.

“The darkness that we see over the plains is transitory,” he explained with a sigh, “You could drive it away and restore them. This-” he paused, as if contemplating the situation “-this is much worse.”

“I think we could have figured that out by ourselves,” I muttered, “or else we wouldn’t be chasing this fountain that was clear and now black.”

Gil continued, “If we disallow this to continue we may be able to recover the plains-” “They’re not sick nor are they lost,” I said under my breath, “They’re just covered with nasty dark stuff.”

“-and the people who live in them.”

“They’re also not lost,” I muttered.

Suddenly Angela froze for a moment, then started walking off. Colena for some reason decided she wanted to make a Destruction shield around Angela. Not the best decision, especially if your next decision is to ram into that person. The shield didn’t work and she ended up having a whole lot of flowers and butterflies swirling around her. Just so you know, ramming people is definitely not a good idea, especially if a giant furball is going to ki- oops, did I spoil something? Anyway… we’d never been really stealthy on that journey, but Gil winced as whatever semblance of stealth we had right in that moment was completely gone. Angela turned, flicked a finger at Colena, and Colena began to glow blue.

She hurtled towards Angela, and they sort of embraced, oddly, before there was a bright flash, the sound of the force field shattering, and Angela appeared unconscious, with Colena standing over her. The word “no” was barely out of my mouth before a giant mass of fur materialized, and a bear’s claw impaled Colena and swung her into the air.

Okay guys, sailing through the air because you just got hit by a bear was not on my bucket list, it still isn’t, and it will never be.

Colena hit the ground with a dull thump, her clothes around her chest soaked with blood. Angela was still unconscious. Colena was unconscious. Oh great. So the first thing I did - instead of doing what I was supposed to do - was hesitating. Not a good idea. Cynthia was about ten feet away from the furball (who, by the way, was a bugbear). The bugbear was covered in shaggy fur, had a face that looked part bear and part human, bear claws, a belt on which hung many deadly weapons that I’m sure the bear was just juggling around with (I’m kidding), and, overall, a very ugly body. There was a faint rumbling sound, as this wall of dirt erupted between them. Nice I guess.

The bugbear paused, as if processing the fact that we all had magic and could blast it to pieces at that very moment. It probably hadn’t considered that before knocking Colena unconscious. It also

decided to leave Cynthia’s wall alone. Gil then ran, shouting something that sounded like “NOT AGAIN!”, leaped over the wall, swung his stick, and started engaging in an unexciting fight with the bear. Then there was a massive explosion, and Gil died. The end.

No, just kidding. Gil didn’t die. Somehow. I personally would have died if I got blown up by an explosion. That’s called logic, children.

I ran over to Colena after that, cleaned her wounds, and got her conscious again (Angela later complained that I didn’t run over to her too and get her conscious. I told her to shut up). After maybe thirty seconds, Jerick went over and tried to stomp on a moving vine, failed miserably to do so effectively, wrapped itself around his legs, and pulled him off into the underbrush, leaving ten fingernail drags in its wake. There was also the rustling of leaves and snapping of branches, because dragging someone off into the forest isn’t a very quiet way to abduct someone. He shrieked as he got pulled away, which was suddenly cut off as he went out of like a 2 metre radius from me (I’m horrible at measuring distance, sorry about that).

“There’s a f-ing snake pulling everybody!” Cynthia yelled, and she looked as if she wanted to blurt out a string of cuss words that nobody could understand. Justin No. 2, I believe, literally went to the vine, yelled “Die!” and made it wither. He and Jerick came jogging back. Justin wore an expression that said easy peasy.

Then Angela sat up suddenly. She walked over to the bugbear and Gil. I watched not-dead Gil with his [not] epic stick in front of him, pointing at the furball. The thing didn’t like having sticks pointed at it, and it snarled very [not] menacingly towards Gil, who was breathing somewhat heavily. Some of the branches of some nearby trees were wrapped around the bugbear, anchoring it to the trees. Angela literally walked up to the very furry thing with yellow eyes and said, “Hello bugbear.”

It grunted in a confused manner (don’t ask me how), turning towards her. It growled, and Gil warned, “Angela! Be careful.”

“You’re just weak,” Angela said, waving the matter away. She offered the bugbear a friendship bracelet, which was a stick bent into a circle. The furball didn’t seem to understand the concept of a bracelet. Angela reached towards its arm, and, surprisingly, the bugbear accepted it. And then it sort of smiled, which was not a very pleasant sight because this thing had a lot of really sharp teeth. It was a rather gruesome sight, though it did seem genuinely happy. Angela offered him (we decided it was male) a sandwich, and he ate it.

“Don’t attack people,” Angela said, as if talking to a pet, “and I’ll give you another sandwich.”

“People asked for attack,” the bugbear said in a very rusty, rumbly, deep tone.

“Oh, well-” “The loud one shouted to be attacked.”

“She’s just a maniac friend,” Angela said.

“If sandwich yelled at you, ‘please come eat me’, you would eat sandwich, yes?”

“Yes.” “Yeah, that’s what I was trying to tell you,” he said, looking at Gil. “Students are not sandwiches,” Gil said through gritted teeth, still pointing his stick at the bugbear.

The standing bear shrugged its shoulders.

“Do you have a name?” Angela asked.

“I do have a name! Thank you for asking! That’s very polite of you! My name is Blart!”

“What?”

“Blart.”

“Uh, hi Blart, wonderful name.”

“Thank you! What is your name?”

“My name is Angela.”

“Aww, Angela, that’s a strange and weird name, but, um, it’s nice.”

“My name is Angela, but you can call me Blurt.”

“Ooooh, Blurt! Good name! Strong name! Yes!” At that point the voices got too far away for me to hear, for we had seen a bunch of bright yellow samaras (the seeds of a maple tree, the genus is scientifically known as acer) blowing in the wind towards us from the place that Jerick had returned from. We left Cynthia, Gil, Blart, Grace, and Angela behind.

We followed them, and they started to grow thinner and thinner, and there were less and less of them from the hundreds that had come to us. They disappeared from sight and instead, the air was full of pollen. It wasn’t normal pollen, not the yellow stuff that comes out of flowers. No, it was purple pollen. Or rather, lavender pollen. WARNING: WHEN YOU SEE POLLEN THAT’S A PURPLE-RELATED COLOUR, DON’T BREATHE IN IT! Okay, I might have just told you that it was an incredibly bad idea to breathe in the purple pollen. It was, it probably still is. Anyway, we all inhaled this wonderful sweet-smelling lavender that TOTALLY didn’t have any bad side effects. And then we reached the spring.

Probably we all forgot the slow dark stuff in the channels, because when we reached the fountain, there was just clear water. Perfectly clear water. Also, we were told that playing in it would help the ecosystem. And we rapidly grew more attracted to this place, so we couldn’t seem to get out. We splashed each other like idiots, did random stuff.

There was a pretty purple flower that stood on the ledge, and I reached out towards it, and grabbed it, which hauled me towards a swing. Did I mention the swing? Oh, yeah, and it was sort of lucky that Colena pushed me off of it and yelled “me too!” before I got eaten by a carnivorous plant without knowing it. Angela, Gil, Cynthia, Blart, and Grace appeared, and Angela blasted Colena off of the vine, which sent her flying and flailing into the woods, and I didn’t hear her land, but hey, it was a magical enchanted forest that was meant to limit hearing and sight!

As she pushed me into the water, I swallowed a whole bunch of the water, which tasted bitter for some reason. The water hadn’t tasted bitter before - not as if I’d purposely drank it. I spat it out immediately. Then the scene changed before my eyes. I hated it from the moment it started to change.

The clear, running water turned black and slow. The others didn’t notice. The purple plant was a venus fly trap that loomed over me, malicious and menacing. The “swing” was gone. The voice in my head (did I mention that there was one) changed from “my children!” to “defend me from the things that are attacking your master!”

I instantly scrambled onto the bank, waved my hand, and created a massive blue field of light around everyone still in the corrupted thing. I heard the plant scream in agony as it severed the roots of the horrible plant, and immediately dived for the ground as it lashed at me overhead. It hit a tree and withdrew, snarling with anger and pain. TREACHERY, it screamed in my head. As it withdrew, the plant touched the top of the force field I created, gave me a splitting headache that left ringing in my ears

because it just yelled a string of cuss words in my head, and shattered the force field. The last of the black stuff slid off of me, leaving a whole bunch of very black grass below me. The others, realizing that the fountain was not a lovely and clear pool, tried clearing out of it hurriedly.

Jerick quickly blasted the plant with fire, which shrieked (out loud this time), gave me more ringing in my ears, another headache, and the sight of a scorched plant. Grace moved everyone in the pool further from the plant, Justin No. 1, Justin No. 2, and Haolin popped out and ran, Cynthia also gave it a face full of flames and simultaneously, Chris made a really weird creature that launched itself towards the plant. And so ends the evil plant that pretended to be a purple daisy. Moral of the story: Don’t be a purple daisy.

Also, I think I should be giving Colena some credit for this: She tried to cast a spell at it, failed, and ended up with butterflies and flower petals.

Blart exclaimed, “Wow! You kids are- That’s pretty cool!”

“Uh alright did you know that that’s what we’re supposed to be doing every single day?” I muttered, but accepted the comment nonetheless.

Blart genuinely apologized for trying to attack us, and so we lived happily ever after.

Just kidding.

While we were in the forest, we decided to go see what was stalking us.. And it turned out it was a bug Bear! Well it was happy for a moment but then colena got thrown and got hurt so we escaped back.THen i saw i vine about to snatch my friends but it ended up pulling me away but luckily justin z came to save.THen we decided to explore the smell coming from where i was dragged and it was polen it smelled soo good i just wanted to lick it so when i touched it my mind goes blank.Suddenly i woke up with a giant plat right in front of me so blasted a big flame to it it burned the plant.When the plant died the fountain got purified… To be continued..

As we were walking through the forest, Angala stomped and shouted “I SAW A WHITE FURBALL THE SIZE OF A PAPERCLIP!” Professor Gil said “stop yelling I can hear you” “you saw a moth? Angala responded “no I did not see a moth I saw a white furball the size of a paper clip!” Gill says “ok please look after the younger students” For some reason Colena asks “What kind of joke is that?” Angala responds “a knock knock joke” Colena then says “it's not”.

We keep going through the dark forest and even though I know it is day it looks like it is dusk.As we move further in I hear water. Professor Gil says “fan out” and Colena says “are we looking for the spring?” Gil says “no we are looking for an irrigation trench, it is how the centaurs use to bring water from the fountain to the golden plains, suddenly I black out for some reason. I wake up to hear Justin Z say “I like it” the water is black for some reason.

Professor Gil pulls out a contactor of water and drinks the remaining water in it then scoops some of the water from the pipe, the black water is thicker than water it’s kinda like honey, as is splashes on the ground the grass starts to turn black and wither where the black water was poured. Gill says” the darkness we saw in the plain is transitory, we can drive it away, this, this is much worse, if we can’t stop this then the plains and the centaurs in the plains will be lost” I see Angala walking off the path into the brush and Colena as well as Justin C and Cynthia go with them too, I decide to follow them as well. Colena starts doing something and butterflies start to appear, Angala turns around and makes some kind of force field or bubble around Colena. This was the thing Rachal was trying to do, Cynthia raised some of the earth from the ground and threw it into the bushes.

I blacked out from exhaustion because I did not get enough sleep.I wake up to be in a fountain for some reason and remember what Colena said about some sort of fountain and thought that this is the fountain so I get out and try to look for them.Then somehow the water started turning black and I saw this big Venus Flytrap looking thing and make a small rat with very big teeth using my alteration magic and it got incinerated by Angala which did startled me a bit and got out of the fountain. The fountain started to turn from black to blue, the same color of water that I woke up in that ilusion? I’m not sure, but I am still alive and I think my magic is getting better.

Class 3 Beautiful seeds There were beautiful seeds in the air, and they were all shaped like maple seeds. There were a bunch of them falling from the sky, and they each fell onto the ground. When they fell onto the ground, they were growing into walking saplings. One of the walking saplings came towards me, and so I turned around and ran.

Grace is chased by a walking sapling The walking sapling was not fast at running, but it was surely getting closer. It was getting closer because it was growing. I kept running along the path, and sometimes I looked over my shoulder to see how close and/or far it was from reaching me. It grew extremely close to me, so I decided to stop the walking sapling.

Grace stops her attacker I was running, and I turned around to see the walking sapling. It was very close to me, so I decided to stop it. I kept running, Then, I turned, raised my hand around and yelled “Stop!”.

Suddenly, magic came out of my hand and it began to wither the walking sapling. The walking sapling stopped, then looked down at itself and went back the way he came from.

We cast spells and fight I casted a spell that protected my classmates from the evil plant.

Today Colena forgot that she killed the big plant. Blart said something weird I didn't understand.

Soon we were talking about great sepants, big things better than small things. We got a warning from Blart that we should be careful from the Shepherds of the Forest. Soon Rachael and Colena went to get ingredients and they were back and Colena picked a lot of orange mushrooms. Justen C was halting a huge log and Angela ,Jerick ,Chris were finding the cauldron and Michael ,Justen Z, Cynthia, and Grace were on the venom thing and we saw a humongous serpent or two coming at us.We soon knew that it was the Great Serpent.

Colena Shan

Date: January 5, 3082 Location: The Black Forest Hello again. I stopped yelling my head off shortly afterwards, as my throat began to hurt a bit. The first years looked relieved that I had stopped, but I was planning to scream again after my throat felt better. Angela still didn’t rejoin us, but I wasn’t worried. She’d probably come back a few moments later, announcing she’d found some adorable animal that turned out to be an aggressive monster.

And guess what? Mere seconds later, I heard super loud stomping, and Angela marched up to Gilmor, screaming, “I saw a white little furball and he was the size of a paper clip and he’s the cutest thing!!!”

Knowing Angela, this probably meant “gigantic, creepy, and tough creature”. I grinned.

“Keep your voice down,” Gil snapped, “I can hear you—you’re close enough to me. You saw—a—moth? What was it?”

Excuse me? Who hears ‘furball/paper clip/white/little/cute’ as ‘moth’? And you say you can hear her? Wow. “No,” Angela said loudly, “I did not see a moth. I saw….a white furball the size of a paper clip.”

Gilmor raised his eyebrows. “Good,” he said after a moment’s pause. “Keep an eye on the younger students, all right?”

As Angela passed me, I asked, “What kind of joke is that?”

“A knock-knock joke,” she responded, smirking.

“Is not.”

*******

The deeper we headed into the forest, the darker it became. The leaves were a very dark shade of purple and black. Soon, we lost sight of the sun.

According to my watch, it was still daytime, but it felt like dusk. After walking, I think, 2 km, I could hear a faint trickle of water.

“Are we close?” I asked Professor Gilmor.

“We must be,” was the reply. “Or we wouldn’t be able to hear it. Fan out. Find it.”

“Find what? The spring?” I said.

“Well—no—not the spring yet. We should be looking for an irrigation trench. This is what the Centaurs used to bring water from the fountain to the golden plains. And that is what will lead us to the fountain.”

Justin Z was the person who found it. He called us over.

A small trench in the ground. Inside of it, dark black water.

“I like it,” Justin Z said randomly.

Gil reached into his small pack, which was slung across his shoulder. He took out a container filled with water. He drank the water, and used the container to scoop up some black water.

He poured it out onto the ground. It came out, not like water would’ve, but more like honey does. As it splashed down on the ground—then the grass the black water touched withered and turned dark.

“The darkness we see covering the plains—” (“It’s a prairie,” Rachael said.) “—is transitory. We could drive it away. This is much worse. If we allow this to continue, we may not be able to save the plains and the people who live there.”

I saw Angela start walking into the brush. I followed, and Justin C and Cynthia did too, looking anxious.

I wanted to create a force field around Angela because she’s rather fond of injuries (e.g. Drinking a bomb twice, once when she knew it was a bomb) but I failed. I prayed my hair didn’t fall out again. Illusionary butterflies and flower petals flew around me. I later told Rachael, and she wrote this in her Side Effects Book.

January 5, 3082 Breh. Alright, Colena gets the side effect: Illusionary flowers, butterflies and petals flying round you. Second victim of this Side Effect (Kylie was first)…Location: The Black Forest…People Present: Justin Z, Cynthia, Angela, Colena.

Angela wanted to put me into a force field, and she made it look ezpz. She turned around, snapped her fingers, and I was in the force field. Figuring I’d deal some damage to Angela before she did anything else ridiculous, I walked towards her with an odd grin on my face.

Angela noticed this, and ran right into me. The force field dissolved, and Angela collapsed to the ground, unconscious, as Cynthia picked up a large amount of dirt and threw it into the bushes. Right at that moment, a bear’s paw hit me hard and I flew into the air, landed hard, and I fell into unconsciousness.

******* I came to sometime later. Rachael and Cynthia were helping me up. (Angela later complained that Rachael, Cynthia or someone else should’ve gotten her conscious. Seriously, Angela? When you plead all day for injuries and love getting attacked. Jeez.)

“Thanks,” I said. Jerick suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started to stomp on a vine I hadn’t noticed before. As soon as he did, the vine wrapped itself around Jerick’s right leg, dragging him into the underbrush. Jerick screamed—not that it helped as we’re in this forest that makes your hearing much worse—but help came anyways. Justin Z sprinted after the vine—vanished in the

bushes as well—I heard him scream “DIE!” and a few moments later, Justin Z and Jerick returned, Justin Z looking rather pleased with himself.

Cynthia yelled, “There’s a [CENSORED] snake pulling somebody!” before shouting a bunch of swear words that most of us ignored.

******* A bunch of maple tree seeds (I just call them helicopters) were blowing on a breeze towards me…and everyone on the path. There were hundreds—probably thousands. They came from the same direction that Jerick and Justin Z had just returned from.

I decided to explore that part. I made my way through the forest, followed by most of the first years and Rachael, Cynthia going back to where Angela, Gil, and Blart were.

We saw something large deeper in the forest and heard the sound of running water. Soon the helicopters disappeared, replaced by dark purple pollen. I wasn’t sure if it was safe to breathe in, but I didn’t have much of a choice. It…was nice…fresh…and comforting when I breathed it in. It was sweet. I felt more relaxed and calm.

We proceeded with nothing eventful going on, until we heard this voice.

“Children, children, I am so glad you are here. I’ve been waiting for someone to come and help. Are you here to help?” it said.

“Maayyybeee,” I said.

“Good. Good,” the voice said. The voice was welcoming.

I moved closer to it, and saw a gray stone formation. Rolling down the side of the stone was a trickle of water, presumably from some unseen spring. It landed in a shallow pool. The water in the pool seemed (I’m saying “seemed” because it was an illusion) clear, and I could see the stone bottom. It looked clean.

“Is this where the fountain is?” I asked the voice.

“Yes. Yes. Good, you’re here to help the Golden Plains—” (Rachael muttered that it was a prairie) “—I too, wish to help the plains.”

“By the way, who are you?” I asked.

I glanced into the pool. There were a couple of roots. My eyes followed the roots up the side of the stone, and it led to a gigantic plant. It was a dark purple flower. Its petals were amazing. It seemed to look towards me and my group as it said, “Won’t you help me protect this fountain?”

“How—and who are you?” I said.

“I am the spirit of the forest,” the flower answered, “and the way you can help the fountain is that you can come closer and drink from it.”

“How do you expect that to help?” I asked.

“Because you are innocent,” the plant replied, “and kind…your presence will help to cleanse the fountain.”

Don’t trust the flower, a small voice in my head whispered. Something’s not right.

“Why should we trust you?” I asked the flower.

“Oh…I…had not…thought of this question,” the flower said. “I suppose…I suppose…you’ll have to believe. Trust is a strange concept to my people. We can simply tell truth by looking at it.”

Don’t trust it, the small voice in my head whispered.

The flower is good. It’s telling the truth! a louder voice yelled in my head.

Don’t trust it! the small voice insisted, but it was barely a whisper compared to the louder voice, which said, The flower means well. I can help the fountain. Listen to it, do what you can to help and obey the flower!

I launched myself into water…not really knowing what to do. The louder voice took over.

I experienced the best feeling in the world, in the clear water. I cried out in joy, my companions looking eager, diving in after me, and we splashed each other, laughing, having the time of our lives, watched by the flower who smiled down at us.

A vine extended down to Rachael, who grabbed it eagerly, while the rest of us watched, jealous that she got more attention from the flower than we did.

“Child, would you like to swing from my branches?”the flower asked Rachael.

Why did Rachael get to go first? Why not me?

“Push her off!” the small voice whispered. “She’s gonna be eaten!”

“Get her off!” the louder voice yelled. “You should go first!”

Both of the voices in my head were yelling at me to get Rachael off even if they had different reasons, so I shoved her straight back into the pond, as I yelled, “Snap out—me first!”

Rachael looked at me, furious. She’d obviously wanted the swing first. I felt a little bad that I had taken such a marvelous opportunity from her—she was my friend after all, but I climbed on the swing anyways.

“Now, now, children, one at a time, you will all get to use the swing set,” the flower said soothingly.

I started to swing on the swing set, enjoying every nanosecond of it, when the flower said, “Would you like to nap amongst my petals?”

“YES!” shouted the voice in my head. “Nothing could be more pleasant.”

The vine picked me up and dangled me above—wait. My vision blurred slightly, and then—I saw a huge mouth below me. I was gonna get eaten. I was going to die. I prepared myself for its teeth.

PFFMMMPH. I flew ten feet backwards, off of the plant, realizing what had happened. Angela had used magic to zap me off of the plant.

Huh. Maybe she could make it less painful next time? I shook my head, dazed. The plant had us all under an illusion. Now, as I looked, the water in the pool that had seemed clear moments before was now black—the students in the pool were splashing each other with oil.

The flower now resembled a Venus flytrap. It was larger and creepier though. Rachael had this “how-dare-you-attack-Colena-and-the-flower” look, but before she could do anything, Angela flicked her hand and Rachael splashed back into the oil. It looked as if she swallowed some, and Angela looked horrified.

Rachael spat the oil out of her mouth. She shook her head, as if to clear it, then she scrambled out of the fountain, looking at the plant in horror, waved her hand and did something to the plant I did not see. I heard the plant roar in anger, and approach Rachael, who dove to the side easily.

After the plant hit something (I think a force field of Rachael’s), everyone in the pool of oil seemed to no longer be under the Venus Flytrap’s control and looked around, confused.

Colena, Colena, your friends have been corrupted. Your friends have been tricked! I heard in my head.

“Like I said earlier,” I shouted, “where is your proof?”

“I DON’T NEED PROOF! I AM A GOD!” the Venus Flytrap thing screamed back.

“Where is the proof that you are the Spirit of the Forest?” I yelled. “You may be a god, but you may not be what you say you are.”

“I SHOULD’VE EATEN YOU FIRST!” the plant screamed.

“You tried,” I replied.

Jerick cast a spell of fire which burnt the plant pretty bad, and the plant screeched in pain. It sounded pretty satisfying.

Grace attempted some magic to get everyone to safety, and although it didn’t work as she wanted it to, it did get some of the first years away from the plant.

The two Justins flung themselves out of the oil and started to run away. Cowards. Haolin had no idea what to do, and ran away too. What a coward.

Cynthia summoned a gigantic fireball and directed it towards the plant.

Chris conjured up a giant snow rat with enormous teeth and had it attack the plant. The snow rat was too late—as soon as it reached the plant, Cynthia’s fireball shredded it into a bunch of tiny pieces.

I thought that the pieces might still have something in them that could affect the forest and stuff, so I attempted to burn the pieces. However, all I managed was a Side Effect, with illusionary butterflies and flower petals flying around me. Rachael and Angela would know it was a Side Effect, but I hoped everyone else just thought I was celebrating.

I watched as Rachael smirk and take her Side Effects notebook out.

The bugbear was watching us. “Wow! You kids are—wow—that’s pretty cool!” The bugbear looked rather freaked out.

Angela shouted, “His name is Blart, everyone!”

“BLART, ATTACK ME!” I screamed.

Blart stammered, “I’m sorry, I—just want to give my sincerest apologies—” “I insist!” I shouted. “Attack me!”

Sadly, he didn’t.

******* As the plant died, we saw clarity return to the fountain. Gil nodded approvingly and said, “There may be ways we can help this along, but if we leave now, eventually…eventually nature will heal.”

“Great! Let’s go then,” I said, as the Justins and Haolin reappeared.

Bye.

SESSION FOUR

Bugbear's Potion

Rachael January 5, 3802 et’s see. Ah yes. We just killed this plant that was tricking us into being happy in a whole bunch of black water. Happy days.

“I have idea,” Blart said in his croaky, bear-like voice that had bad grammar. We all turned and looked at him rather expectantly, some of us with narrowed and suspicious eyes.

“There is antidote to poison,” he continued slowly in his broken English. He began to rattle off about this potion that bugbears knew that might be able to help us with our job.

“There are roots and mushrooms,” he explained, finally getting his grammar right to something, “And some fruits that I can describe to you. That will need to be collected from forest. We will also need wood. Which will need to be collected from trees.”

“From what?” Colena interrupted.

“From trees. They are the large things that grow all around,” Blart said, glancing around with a hint of apprehension in his eyes.

“We know what trees are, Blart, go on!” Gil said indignantly.

“Yes, sorry. It’s just - they are students, they are young.”

I’m not even bothering to comment on how stupid that logic is.

“Also, cauldron. Must be acquired. From a local. Hermit. You could, um, trade for cauldron, you could-” “Steal the cauldron?” Colena suggested.

“You could murder for cauldron,” Blart proposed. I shivered at that thought.

“You, sir, are a ray of sunshine,” I muttered. Gil stared at Blart as if he was out of his mind, then shook his head vigorously.

“Or not. Probably not. And there’s only one last ingredient - it’s very easy and you only need a little bit of, um, serpent venom.” I know I spelled little as “little” which is the correct spelling, but Blart had this weird accent that made him sound like he was saying “lirtle”.

“Where can we find serpent venom?” Colena asked, excited.

“Uh, serpents. You would get it from the serpents.”

“Okay, yeah, and where are the serpents?”

“Very important that you would squeeze serpent around its fangs so that venom come out,” he continued, disregarding Colena’s question.

You can’t squeeze fangs, I thought, They are TEETH which makes them PERFECTLY SOLID. “You need vial because once it is in your arm and your body and your bloodstream it is much hard to do stuff.”

“Where do you find the sea serpent and the venom?” Chris asked.

“It’s not a sea serpent, it’s a Great Serpent. The Great Serpent. The one that made-” “The Great Serpent?” Colena inquired.

“Yes, not- okay. Um, great is bigger than small, do you understand the concept of bigger? Um, you are small. I am great. The serpent is great.” He was gesturing with his hands - or should I call them paws? WHATEVER. “Not good,” he continued in his odd accent. “Not good serpent. Bad serpent. Great

serpent.” He got this kind of wild and insane glint in his eyes before moving on. “Bad. But great. Those students understand English, yes?”

Just to not be rude, I refrained from spitting out a whole bunch of profanities at the bugbear, though my mind was screaming, futue te ipsum at the bugbear. I’d recommend you not translate that phrase.

“I’m not entirely sure I understand English after listening to that,” Gil said with a snort. “Big snake?”

“Yes, big snake,” Blart said happily.

“Uh yeah. Sure. Big snake. Very.”

“Size is no guarantee of power,” Colena pointed out.

“Uh, bigger tooth have more power than smaller tooth. Bigger poison more power than smaller poison. But Great Serpent have lots of baby serpents. So maybe you can try baby serpent instead.”

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea,” Colena objected, “They would probably be madder.”

“Hmm,” the furball mused, while Angela and Chris suggested that we domesticate the serpent.

Bad idea. We all stared at them both skeptically, because (I’m pretty sure) we were all thinking that that was an ABSOLUTELY horrible idea.

We split up. Grace, Justin (one of them, I can’t tell the difference, they were both tiny, no offence, sorry about that, I said nothing), Haolin, Cynthia, and Michael went to “squeeze serpent around its fangs”. The other Justin went to cut down a tree, which I was very doubtful he could do because, well, you know, he was just so tiny (okay I’ll shut up about how all of them were all so tiny. But it was true, you know). Jerick and Chris went to bully this hermit into giving them the cauldron, and Colena and I went to collect ingredients.

We had to listen to Blart, which I ABSOLUTELY HATED and found IMMENSELY FRUSTRATING, INAUSPICIOUS, and ANNOYING. Which was weird, because I’m pretty sure I was supposed to be intimidated since the bugbear was about 3.3528 metres tall, or eleven feet. He was covered in shaggy fur, stood on two legs, and had many things like axes and clubs and small daggers (for him) strung to his belt. Also, by the way, if you search up “bugbear noun” in the dictionary, you’ll find that it means “a thing that annoys people and that they worry about” which makes a LOT of sense.

“Okay,” he began, except it sounded more like “ookay”. “Little ones.”

I made a sort of strangled growling noise in my throat. He glanced at both of us, separately, as if assessing the situation, except - oh wait I forgot, he didn’t have any brains. “They send you for this one?”

“No, we chose to do it,” Colena grumbled.

“Ah, you - well I guess firewood would be hard for one who doesn’t know what a tree is-” I glared at him. He didn’t notice. “This is perhaps the safest for you, yes.” He lifted one of his humongous paws and patted us both on the head. “Okay,” he continued, “You need three ingredients.

Do you know how many that is?”

“More than two and less than four,” Colena snapped.

“Very good,” he said, delighted, but then Colena said something that I will NOT include because I’d rather not and I’M the one writing this here. “Oo,” he said, mustering an offended face, before continuing, “The first thing that we need - yew roots. Not U-roots, yew roots, with like a Y.” “Like, Y-E-W?” Colena asked.

“Yes, that one,” Blart said cheerfully, “We also need daffodil. Daffodil is a bright little flower that taste very bad. Daffodil is yellow-” “You ate daffodils before?” Colena yelped, with a hint of exasperation.

“No no, don’t eat- no no, don’t eat daffodil-” “No, I’m asking if you have!”

“Colena, don’t pi- don’t eat the ingredients, we will need them for potion. If you eat them, pick extra.”

“We could have figured that out on our own,” I said under my breath.

Blart looked at me. “Rachael, pick extras. Colena will eat them. We need to make sure we have enough.”

I wish I could knock out this inane fur-brain, I thought, but that would be rude.

“Last one we need. Red mushroom. Be careful with red mushroom, because orange mushroom kill everybody. Don’t pick orange mushroom. Red mushroom only.

“Is it like, dark red, or is it just red?” Colena asked.

“Good question. Mostly red with some white-ish spots. But orange mushroom-” “ISN’T THAT THE POISONOUS ONE?” Colena barked, irritated. The bugbear continued muttering about orange mushrooms. I made a bow and arrow out of light and pointed the tip at Blart because HE WAS BEING SO ANNOYING. “Hmm, very beautiful, this would help you in the forest,” he said. I waved my hand and it disappeared.

“Good luck,” he said.

We split up immediately. It wasn’t hard to reach an agreement as to whether we were working together or not - both of us simply preferred independence, and I wanted some time to be alone. It took me twenty minutes or so to gather everything. It was hard to imagine that something so bright and colourful could exist in this forest - after all, it was called “the Dark Forest” for a reason.

While I was digging up the yew roots, my hand touched something hard. The soft, dirty, and slightly warm fabric of a piece of cloth. And underneath it, cold metal. I paused for a moment, then cleared away some soil and dug it out of the ground.

It was a dagger. The double-edged blade was still gleaming, with no trace of rust on it. The hilt was covered in black shagreen. I winced when a thin trail of blood appeared as I ran my hand over the central ridge. I pressed my hand into the hole again, and there was a cloth underneath, but I had a feeling I knew what it was, so I left it alone.

I knew because I recognized this dagger. Or rather, part of it. I remembered the white liquid sloshing around in the necklace that had fallen from the roof of the house that Argon grew up in, and the brilliant white flash as it encased its victim. And inlaid in the middle of the hilt was a smooth, oval-shaped thing that glowed with bright white light (that rhymes).

It was surprising that nothing in the forest decided that I had to die while I was collecting ingredients. Occasionally an animal peered out from the underbrush, then decided I wasn’t tasty and slunk away. When I got back to the fountain, Colena was holding a whole bunch of orange mushrooms over it, frowning, then throwing them away. She then pulled out some red mushrooms, with a satisfied look on her face.

We managed to gather enough, so we headed back to the tree where I had found the dagger. I drew out the dagger again and examined it more closely. The white oval in the middle was identical to the one on the amulet. Except - if I could recall, the things displayed in Rengar’s tomb were the amulet, a bag, an orb, and a staff that looked like Gil’s. Colena, meanwhile, had lifted up the other piece of cloth. I peered over her shoulder at it, and buried - rather crudely, it seemed - were bones.

I think Colena might’ve scooped up the bones and put them in her satchel, but at that point we went back, made the potion, blah blah blah, the fountain was cleared, so on, so forth. Then we left, back across the broiling prairie that, of course, held many surprises.

As the fountain starts to clear up like 2 seconds later the fountain starts to corrupt again which was very underwhelming and sad, but Blart said something very vague about a potion or elixir to purify the fountain. We need 4 things for this elixir, some mushrooms and roots, A cauldron, firewood and some serpent venom. I go to get the cauldron with Angela and Jerick.

So the cauldron we need to get is from an old “Hag” who eats children, chills.

After half an hour of traveling we got to a small wooden hut. There was smoke coming out, and I was going to knock on the door but Angela just blasted the door open with magic. I see a fireplace I think, A butchers knife with some sort of red thing on it, A table in the middle, some other things and as Angela mentioned, no toilet, or bathroom. Scary as heck I might add. After some strange things with Angela, I forgot, I might have some short term memory remembern’t sometimes.

We try to get the caldron but she was basically denying it all, I said that “we need your caldron, if you do we will give you all the food in the world, we will give you so many children” she said in response “but I’m vegetarian” but she did have blood on a butchers knife. First we try to convince her to give us the cauldron, Angela says something along the lines of “Hello mam I would like to know if you could give us your caldron because my dad is sick and I need it to get some medicine for him” and I couldn’t remember what she said exactly because I was looking around the house for where the cauldron was.

The old lady responds “I don’t have a caldron” and I whisper to Angela, “get ready” but the lady says “get ready for what?” so I panic and say “oh no I was saying to get ready to get the herbs and mushrooms for the medicine” panicking on the inside, realy? Do you know how to make medicine? I say “no our uncle will help us make it” thinking of Blart. “Oh ok, very sad that both of your dads are sick,” she says or something like that. I was scared out of my mind that we could get killed any second.

Angela tries to blast the roof on fire or something, I was still scared of the lady still. I thought she was going insane for a second.Well… she might have set the roof on fire and didn’t put it out.

Luckily the old woman summoned the caldron, got water from it and put the roof out! She said something along the lines of “just take the darn cauldron and LEAVE” so we took it and RAN LIKE THE WIND. When we were back at the fountain we saw Colena and Rachel had already come back. We all wait for the venom group and Justin C the wood guy. After a while all of the ingredients were found so Blart started to make the potion. After it was done we poured the potion into the fountain and slowly but surely the water started to purify and was clear again.

Pure as Yang. Balanced like Yin and Yang. But things will change soon, I can feel it. Will Yin control the steering wheel? Who Knows.

I walked over to Blart and listened to what he had to say. He told us all the info we barely needed but still useful. We walked into the forest and about 10 minutes in we see a GIANT GLOWING ORB not one but TWO ORBS. And after a few seconds Grace started walking toward them. And then I notice it’s not just 2 ORBS it’s a whole giant snake the GREAT SERPENT… I yell “GRACE YOUR RUNNING INTO THE GREAT SERPENT!!!” she realizes what she's doing and then runs back. She then gets a jar and gets the venom we needed. Well we got it but I’m just gonna sit here anyway because WHY NOT. And then after a solid 1 minute Professor Gimor appears and I say “Shhh” while they watched someone look into the mouth of the snake we then fire some random stuff we knew and went back. After a bit of mixing and adding we poured it in and it turned into a nice color.

Class 4 The Venom Group -The Great serpent Me and the rest of my group were walking to get venom from the great serpent. When we were walking, we heard a hiss and we saw light, and I walked closer to it. But then someone told me to stop and I snapped out of it. Then, the great serpent came out and some people ran away. I decided to get the venom out. The great serpent tried to attack me but I dodged the attack. The serpent's mouth was open and it looked like it would stay open for long enough for me to collect the venom.

-Collecting the venom I used magic(alteration I think) to collect the venom out of the great serpent’s mouth. I tried to get the venom out and it worked! I put it in a jar, and closed the lid. I quickly decided to run away from the serpent in case it would attack again. So I ran away from the serpent with the jar of venom.

Soon we were at a fountain and we were split into 4 groups. Group 1 was Colena and Rachael. They need to get ingredients. It was red mushrooms, daffodils and something else. Group 2 was Justin C. He was on his own getting firewood. Blart told him to be careful from the Shepherds of the Forest. Group 3 was Angela, Chris, and Jerick.the needed to get the cauldron. Blart told them that a cannibal woman who ate small children lived there. Group 4 was to get snake venom. We made noises through the forest and woke up the Great Serpent. It was very big and went at us (maybe 2). We began to look scared and walk backwards. Grace did the opposite and took 1 step forward.

Michael

Today, me and a couple more people went off to look for a cauldron adn blart told us there was an old lady that lived in a house that had a cauldron but eats children so i was pretty scared to let my teammate do all the work. When we arrived, we saw there was a washroom outside the house and we decided to ignore it and went into the house. In the house there was no one. We looked around and saw no one. So we started searching for the cauldron but it was nowhere to be seen, until we went to the bathroom. When we knocked on the door an old voice spoke saying: “occupied!” We were confused but then an old lady came out of that washroom and asked why we were here and why we wanted to get the cauldron but suddenly, my teammate started to threaten her and she said no but then my teammate shot her roof with fire and it started to burn. So she gave us the caudron and begged us to get out.So when we came back, we all had our stuff ready.

As we go it a fountain and someone appeared with an aminal that can talk and his name was Bugbear. Soon after one of us got sick so we had tasks to get the cure. My task was to get firewood. As bugbear gave me an axe I walked into the woods to chop down some trees for firewood. As I was chopping down one I saw a tree move in the distance. As I carried the wood back I got ambushed by a bunch of trees. They knocked me out and I didn’t know what was going on.

Colena Shan

Date: January 5, 3082 Location: The Black Forest The fountain was uncorrupted for about three seconds—then the small part where it wasn’t corrupted got corrupted again. Some of us let out hisses of frustration.

“Colena, why don’t you say something to celebrate our victory?” Gilmor said.

Bruh. What the heck.

“I-I had a victory?” I said. Because I do not think purifying the fountain for three seconds then having it back to corrupted state is called a victory.

“The fountain is still corrupted,” someone said.

“Exactly!” I said. “How do you call that a victory?”

“You killed the big plant,” said Gilmor.

“Did I? I thought it was—wait who attacked it again?”

“Not you personally, Colena,” Gil said, “the whole team. If one of us succeeds, we all succeed! It’s part of our collaborative learning here at M Litterae Est Magicae, and frankly, since none of you are dead, this was more successful than last year’s first expedition.”

“Yeah, because you got mad after being thrown soup at by Melissa,” I said.

“Let’s not argue about who got Rachael killed, and how it was clearly—” Gil tried to say.

“It was definitely you, you were the responsible one,” I interrupted.

“Well, if Melissa wasn’t being such a little brat, I would’ve—” “Blaming it on Melissa now, are we?”

“You [insert something I didn’t hear]…Gustav [more stuff I couldn’t hear]…wasn’t able to explode it,” Angela cut in. “And you had to make it the long way.”

“And you crashed through the fourth floor window!” I yelled.

“And if Angela had warned us about the poison…mmm,” Gilmor said, “including Rasputin and if Marysa had figured out that kid—” “If you aren’t deaf,” I said loudly, “you would’ve heard that was exactly what Marysa and Angela were trying to tell you. But you were too stubborn to believe it!”

“I mean, who cares if the wine is poisoned, you’re children, you weren’t going to drink the wine anyways, right?” Gil yelled.

“Vanessa said she was underage and wasn’t going to drink it,” I said.

“Exactly!” Gil yelled. “Blue—bruh—oof—ok whatever we weren’t going to drink it anyways.” He stammered for a bit, but I interrupted, “So-o-o…it’s basically your fault.”

“Well—!” Gil apparently couldn’t find a reasonable argument about that, so he said, “…well sure. What are we going to do about that?” He pointed at the fountain.

I turned to the fountain. “Yeah, is this what you call a victory?” I snapped at Gil. “No….perhaps not. Perhaps Colena’s celebration was premature…” Gil shrugged. “Good effort anyways.”

“I DID NOT CELEBRATE!” I screamed at Gil.

At this point, Blart spoke up, “Ahhh…eyy ah…I have an idea.”

I withdrew my gaze from my fountain and turned expectantly towards him, Rachael, Angela, Gil and the first years doing the same. “Yes?” “Ahhh….there is antidote….to poison…ahh…erm…” Blart stammered. He apparently spoke horrible English.

“We’d better go to Doge Alley and see if Steve Apple is healed,” Angela said, shaking her head.

“No magic can reawaken the dead,” I snapped, momentarily forgetting that Gustav was currently trying to bring Rengar back from the dead.

Blart began explaining about a potion his people knew, which could probably uncorrupt the fountain.

“To accomplish,” the bugbear grunted, “we need ingredients. There are roots and mushrooms, and some fruits…that will need to be collected…from forest” he added. “We also will need wood. Which will be needed to collected from [something I didn’t hear].”

“From where?” I said.

“Trees,” Blart said, “they are large things that grow out of—” “Okay, okay, yeah alright I know what a tree is and they—” I said.

“We know what trees are, Blart!” Gil said impatiently.

“They—they are students,” Blart said. “She asked what is tree—okay…” he pointed at me. He continued, “Also, cauldron must be obtained from a local hermit. You could trade for cauldron. You could steal cauldron. You could murder for cauldron….or not..probably not…”

Gil had a “get-on-with-it-will-you” expression on his face.

“Er…finally, you will need…easy to get…only need a little of serpent venom,” Blart said.

“Oh really? Where can we find the best serpent venom?” I said.

“Erm…serpents…you get venom from serpents.”

I shook my head. “Okay…and yeah, where would we find serpents?” I said, trying to keep my voice casual.

Blart was now explaining the dangers of venom and how hard it was to get the venom when it was injected into your bloodstream.

“Where will we find the Sea Serpent?” questioned Chris.

“Ohhh….not Sea Serpent,” grunted Blart. “No…just…ah…serpent….let’s just call it Grape Serpent.”

“A Grape Serpent?” I said.

“No—great,” Blart and Angela said. I nodded to show I understood, but Blart said, “You understand the concept of great, yes? [insert Blart calling me small and himself great] The Serpent is great. Bad serpent but great serpent. Your students understand English, yes?” Blart looked at Gil. “I-I’m not entirely sure what—big snake?” Gil said.

“Yes.” “Okay. Good. Big snake.”

“Size is no guarantee of power,” I said at once.

“Bigger tooth has more power than smaller tooth,” Blart said. “Bigger poison is better than smaller poison.”

Well, not if the big tooth was flat and the smaller tooth was jagged and sharp, then the smaller tooth could deal more damage.

“But—Great Serpent has lots of babies,” Blart said. “Maybe you can catch one of those instead.”

“I doubt that’s a good idea,” I said, “if you attack one of the baby serpents, the Great Serpent would be madder.”

I took out a spare notebook and pencil from my bag and scribbled, Jobs: Venom Group: Cauldron Group: Firewood Group: Plants/Roots Group: “Alright, let’s decide who does what,” I said. “We won’t be able to communicate with each other after splitting up, which isn’t great. Gil’s gonna stay here.”

Chris suggested that perhaps the fastest should tackle the snakes, in order to have the best chance of dodging when they’re being attacked. The people who were strong could take on the firewood, the people who lied best could negotiate for the cauldron, and the smartest and people with the sharpest eyes could look for the ingredients.

“The trees need to be cut without magic,” Gil informed us.

“So—Angela—me—and Jerick will go to the cauldron thing,” Chris said. Angela and Jerick agreed and I wrote the names Angela, Chris, Jerick next to the Cauldron Group.

Rachael and I chose to look for the plants and roots, while Justin C would try to collect firewood (spoiler: he didn’t do too well). The rest decided to team up against the Great Serpent.

I added everyone’s name to their preferred task. When I was finished, Blart said, “Oh right—yeah—a couple more things…look out for Shepherds of Forest. They dangerous. They creatures who protect trees.” He also informed Angela, Chris and Jerick stuff about the cauldron and the hermit who had the cauldron in their possesion. Blart said some random stuff about the Venom to the Venom Group.

Jobs: Venom Group: Grace, Cynthia, Justin Z, Michael, Haolin Cauldron Group: Angela, Chris, Jerick Firewood Group: Justin C Plants/Roots Group: Colena, Rachael I was thinking about communicating with Illusions. But then I realized that the first years didn’t know any illusion, and Angela and Rachael weren’t great at it either. (I was somehow the best at illusion.)

“Are you gonna help any of us?” I asked Professor Gilmor.

“I will help if anything gets ah…too dangerous,” he said, waving his staff in the air.

“Wow, why does Gil have to be so useless?” Angela said loudly, shaking her head.

“Because if I did everything for you, you wouldn’t learn anything!” he growled at Angela, who shrugged.

Gilmor—you know we don’t expect you to do everything. Just assist Justin C in his attempt to get some wood. We know you’re too cowardly to tackle the venom—you’re definitely not charming or anything so the cauldron is not your strength—and finally—your eyes suck so you’ll fail miserably at the Plants and Roots Group.

When this was decided, Rachael and I walked up to Blart for some instructions…(damn it worked horribly).

“Okay…little ones!” he grunted, looking at Rachael and I with those creepy yellow eyes. “They sent you for this one?”

“No, we chose to do it,” I said, glaring at Blart.

“Aah….you…who…well I guess firewood would be hard for one who doesn’t know what trees are,” Blart said. I resisted the temptation to kick in the shins and scream “I KNOW WHAT TREES ARE YOU IDIOT!” He continued, “This is perhaps the safest place for you, yes.” He raised a gigantic paw towards us and patted us on the head. (This is what was going on inside his head: We are adorable humans who ask strange questions.) Bruh. GET ON WITH IT. “Ok. We need three ingredients,” he said slowly. “Do you know how many that is?”

“Less than four and more than two,” I said irritably and impatiently.

“VERY GOOD!” Blart cheered.

“Oh [CENSORED] off,” I snapped.

“Ohhh….okay…first thing that we need is…yew…root,” Blart said. “Not “you” root, yew root.”

“YES WE KNOW!” I yelled. “Y-E-W root!”

“Good. We also need…daf-oh-dill.”

“Daffodils?” I said.

“Daf-oh-dill is a bright, beautiful flower that taste very bad,” Blart told us. “Daf-oh-dill is yellow—” “You ate daffodils before?” I said.

“No—don’t eat daf-oh-dills—”

“I’m asking if you have ever,” I said.

“Colena, don’t go eating the ingredients—we will need them for potion…if you eat them pick extra,” Blart said. He turned to Rachael. “Ray-chel, pick extra. Colena will eat some. Make sure we have enough.”

I figured it would be pointless to ask Blart questions because I doubt he will answer properly.

“Last ingredient…is mushroom. Big red mushroom. Be careful with Red Mushroom, because Orange Mushroom kill everybody.”

I scowled. Why tell us stuff about orange mushroom while we were only supposed to collect red? However, I was sure this bug bear had his reasons, whether dumb or not, so I didn’t question it.

“Um…is the mushroom fully red, or is it mostly red?” I asked.

“Good question,” Blart grunted. “Mostly red with white-ish spots.”

“Isn’t the red mushroom the poisonous one?” I asked.

“No…orange…with white-ish spots,” Blart insisted.

I forgot who, but I think one of us made an arrow and a bow out of light and pointed the arrow directly at Blart’s heart.

“Very beautiful,” the Bug Bear said, glancing at it, appearing quite unconcerned. “Right…and good luck!”

Rachael and I marched obediently into the forest, and just before we lost hearing of what was going on back at the fountain area, we heard Blart say Justin C was small.

As I always say, size is no guarantee of power. Though of course, Justin C, a ten-year old, didn’t do great on his own.

*******

A quarter of an hour later, Rachael and I had collected enough ingredients (we picked up stuff using gloves, just in case)—well more like Rachael got enough ingredients (I found only three mushrooms, one yew root, and zero daffodils), and returned back to the fountain area.

Blart approved of how much Rachael and I collected together. I checked the colors of the mushrooms in the light of the fountain, relieved that they were all red except for two of them which were orange and darkish yellow, which I threw into the bushes.

Rachael and I then decided to investigate something she’d found earlier while digging a yew root.

She’d been digging normally with her shovel, until the shovel hit something hard with a small chink! (I’m saying small because this forest affects sound and/or hearing.) Rachael told me she’d then started digging quicker, curious to see what she it. She was then able to pull it out of the ground. It was a small dagger.

The dagger was wrapped in a piece of blue cloth.

“It was buried underneath this tree,” Rachael murmured. I took it from her, examining it for a bit. There was a red crystal on the hilt of the dagger. Inside the crystal…there seemed to be liquid. White liquid. It looked…just like the stuff in the amulet of Rengar.

Rachael and I exchanged brief looks, then I gave the dagger back to her. She put it into her pack.

I dug deeper with my shovel and found something also wrapped in a piece of cloth. Inside…were bones.

Rachael and I figured that the dagger was buried over a person and a tree had been planted over it. I examined the bones, realizing the person must’ve been buried a long, long time ago. I had a feeling that it had something to do with Rengar…

We returned to the fountain thirty-five minutes later, noticing that Justin C had yet to return. However, Angela, Chris, and Jerick were apparently back from “bargaining” with the old hermit (guess what, Angela set the hermit’s roof on fire and kicked the poor front door down, shows plenty of politeness and good manners, huh *sarcastic noises*) and Chris was planning to have Angela turn the old hermit’s bones into jelly. Good thing they never did that.

Chris and Angela told me the full story (much, much later), including the part where Angela tried to open the door of the bathroom which was locked, and a voice inside called, “OCCUPIED!” Angela and Chris lied about their dads being sick, and managed to obtain the cauldron. I’m assuming that either Angela and Chris had amazing luck, Angela and Chris lied pretty decently, or the old hermit is vErY gullible. Probably the latter. Jerick lied oKaY about his dad being sick as well. Chris also said that his uncle was gonna brew the medicine in the cauldron on something.

Michael and Justin Z appeared, gasping for breath.

“Did the venom hunting go well?” Gilmor asked them, sounding concerned.

“I’d like to kill the snake,” Justin Z said, turning back and heading towards where I assumed the snake was, Gilmor following closely behind.

Finally, after ten minutes, the Venom Group and Gilmor returned. We were just getting a little worried about Justin C when a gigantic tree appeared, carrying him. The tree dropped him on the ground, panting. It also dropped a chunk of cut wood.

The tree simply stood there, almost like it was watching us. It didn’t do anything, but I had the feeling it was judging us…but it did not appear to be a threat.

Blart gathered the wood, glancing worriedly at the tree, and set the wood on fire. We boiled some water in the cauldron, adding the roots, mushrooms and daffodils. I sniffed the substance—it smelled amazing. Finally, we added the snake venom which turned the potion a disgusting shade of yellow.

Blart coughed, “It’s normal! It’s—[cough] normal!” I stirred it a bit, and after a while, bright light began to pour out from the cauldron. Blart poured the stuff into the fountain.

Great. Now the Great Golden Plain—(oh sorry, Rachael, it’s Prairies)—is no longer corrupted.

Blart, to Angela’s annoyance, didn’t want to go back to the Tower with us. We bid farewell to him, and eventually found our way out of the forest, Gilmor complaining that he’d wanted the mission done before the sun went down.

“It is not safe,” Gil said, “to stay outside of school grounds at night. We should move, and quickly.”

I was hungry now, and looking forward to go back to the castle and eat some food, and to go to Marysa’s room.

But unfortunately, things never work out that way.

SESSION FIVE

Darkness Descends

Rachael January 5, 3802 ’m pretty sure Gil parted the mass on the prairies, so I’m going to say this like he did. So then we started crossing the grassland. We didn’t do a very good job of being stealthy, however - actually I’m pretty sure none of us had the sense to realize that we needed to be stealthy. I moved stealthily enough, Colena started yelling at Gil about some random thing (don’t ask me why, I can’t explain it, go ask Colena), a whole bunch of people tripped, and just about that many people stayed silent, with little more than a crunch heard under their feet. Aandddddd a couple of people tripping and Colena yelling was enough to make the world explode.

I’m pausing on that cliffhanger right there. As usual, I was on the left, Colena on the right, Gil in front, and Angela bringing up the rear. Also, it should be noted that the tower, at the time, had disappeared.

Okay, now cue the world exploding. Colena’s side got attacked first. The creepy dark things stretched out to her and a second later a scorpion scuttled my way. It wasn’t really as large as the scorpions I’d fought before, but either way I twisted my hands and made a hurricane that ripped it to shreds and went on a rampage as streaks of light shot out of my hands to attack the assailants.

Gil apparently had learned some new tricks from Tyrande, for he had trapped Colena in the bubble. He leaned over to Colena, and hissed, “Are you ready to behave now?”

“Yes,” Colena said irritably, and with a snap of Gil’s fingers the bubble disappeared and she tumbled to the ground. She waved her hand, and tried to do something to the army of black shadows that were now marching towards us (more like gliding). Whatever she tried to do, we never found out, because a side effect forced her to summon a unicorn (whos name turned out to be Gerold), and it shouted, “YO, COLENA” before barrelling into the ranks of the darkness, his gleaming silver horn flailing around as he attacked.

Argon yelled at us to jump into a portal - which made me very confused at first because I didn’t see a portal, but Argon appeared to be concentrating very hard on something. Then a third year and a fifth year stepped forward… and nothing was left of them a second later. A moment later I saw a swirling purple nebula in the ground, streaked with white and grey.

A circle of students was made, and all of the first years jumped in first. Then all of the second years (Colena dove in screaming, “I’M GOING TO REGRET THIS VERY MUCH!”). I noted the absence of Marysa. The third years went next, and so on, so forth. Gil’s staff was now spinning around, shooting red beams of light out of both ends. A large fist made of shadows swooped down, but Gil held it off while I blasted it, and it retreated to the vicinity of the tower.

Bright flashes of blue and yellow appeared in the sky as Festo and Tyrande joined the fight. As the last of the seventh years stepped into the portal, Festo waved his hand, creating two illusionary portals, before he jumped in the real one. Tyrande gave me a questioning glance, looked around, before disappearing inside the portal. Argon yelled something at me about jumping into the portal, and I turned to answer when Gil put his hand on my shoulder and pointed at another fist swooping in. I waved my hand, attempting to block it, but I was too slow. The fist impacted me and sent me flying ten feet backwards… and straight into the portal (F in the chat, please, it hurt).

There was a blinding flash of pain and then I found myself spiraling upwards, towards the sky.

The world spun below me, and just as I passed the clouds gravity decided to reactivate, and I plummeted through a clear, sunny sky, into sweltering heat, and a lot of sand. I wondered if the others enjoyed watching a little speck named Rachael spiral down from the sky. Remind me never to take portals again.

I stood up, brushing sand off of myself. I looked around for Gil. He was nowhere to be seen, and the portal had closed up. Argon, meanwhile, was busy getting himself out of a sand dune. Some of the others looked sick - there was a lot of oh-my-goodness-I-just-fell-from-the-skys and some I-officially-hate-traveling-by-portals and one person complained that she got sand in her eyes.

The first thing I noticed was there was a lot of sand. A vast desert met my eyes, which I honestly admit I wasn’t very excited about, considering I was pretty sure we just traveled halfway across the country to Primar. It also wasn’t a landscape I was used to - I was used to lush forests and yellow prairies that bordered my home in Ansnithing. And it was so. Very. Hot. There was barely any wind, and the wind that blew was an uncomfortable, hot wind that whipped against my hair and plastered it to my face with sweat.

“Why are we in a desert?” Tyrande demanded. Clearly she was incredibly uncomfortable with this arrangement, as, you know, heat and frost don’t like each other and Tyrande was a frost elf.

“Because here’s a place we can get help,” Argon replied, as he brushed sand off of his wheelchair. He raised his voice, addressing the whole group of eighty-two people excluding the teachers as he shiftily said, “Um… what happened back there… Well, the truth is, we lost the school.”

“A second year student, Marysa, has been acting very odd lately,” Tyrande added as we turned east, “And up until today, most if not all, didn’t know why. Well…today, shortly after the first years’ group left, she…tried to recruit herself into the Jerry network.”

That sounded like Marysa had suddenly lost her brains.

“The Jerries guard a lot of secrets of this school,” she continued, “And Marysa tried to get access to that information. She was rejected, of course, and… that was when we found out that Marysa wasn’t Marysa at all, and that she was actually Professor Gustav, the former Alteration teacher, in disguise.”

For miles and miles there was just sand, sand dunes, the occasional rock, and cactuses. And sand, sand, and more sand.

“We now assume that when Marysa trapped Gustav in the Amulet of Rengar back in Corpora Gravis last year, they somehow swapped places. We think… we think that Marysa is dead,” Tyrande said gravely.

She’s not dead, my mind hissed, I refuse to believe it. She’s in the amulet.

“You know that she’s-” Colena said, but got interrupted by Festo.

“Gustav was a powerful mage,” he said, “and sometimes, not even we could win a battle against him-” “Speak for yourself,” Tyrande snapped, and I knew that somewhere inside, she was nursing her wounded pride from the loss of the school.

“Yes, yes,” Festo said, before taking a glance at Argon, who was wheeling ahead, and lowering his voice. “Gustav was Argon’s foster father,” he said quietly.

I wasn’t sure why I was surprised.

And since we all decided to overreact, Colena and I shouted, “WHAT??”

“Well, yes,” Festo said, his voice still low so that Argon couldn’t hear him disclosing his secrets, “Argon was adopted by Gustav when he was still young. Anyway, you know how Argon can do amazing magic and stuff and never fails and gets a side effect?”

We all sort of nodded, and Festo continued, “Well, he could never use magic to attack…and Gustav was kind of…disappointed by that, I think.”

I didn’t listen to what Tyrande and Festo said next, because luckily I hadn’t bothered to return my notebook to where they belonged (I had three of them - one for drawings, maps and diagrams, one for side effects, and one for extra notes). I took out the third one and wrote down everything Festo and Tyrande had said.

We trudged for quite a time before we reached the gates of the city. It was a great city, with towering spires that cast shadows upon the ground and large gates that were currently open, groups of people with carts pulled by a horse-like animal with bumps on its back called camels lining up, having their papers checked. As we filed to the front, a guard came up to us and said to Tyrande, “Not on business for Icelandia?” Apparently Tyrande had been an ambassador for the frost elves before she took up this position.

“No… about the school,” Tyrande said, nodding to a couple of us.

“Go get the Grand Vizier,” the guard said to another, who then ran off, and returned a few minutes later with a regal-looking man that had a burgundy turban tied around his head. He gave off an air of superiority as he had an exchange with Tyrande, then with Argon. Then he left, and Argon beckoned for us to follow.

We arrived at a space, where Argon pitched a large tent. “Get inside,” he told us, even though the tent seemed to only be able to fit about fifteen people. Someone pushed open the flap, and we all filed inside, ducking.

It looked the same as the tower on the interior. This was a pocket dimension, so it made sense.

The only difference was that there were more floors because of the fact that there was only one tent that needed to accommodate all of the students.

And so we settled in for the night.

Now that the fountain is now purified we start heading out back to the school. I was kinda tired so didn’t remember much but we ended up getting chased by some sort of shadow demons or something to busy being terrified but Colena got trapped in a huge bubble and started floating up to the top of the cliff where the school is and Gil decided not to put us all in one of those bubbles. In my head I was like

But GILMOR is and idiot who can’t just put all of us in one, while running up the side of the cliff, Cynthea got attacked my a shadow scorpion so I tried turning it into snow but was thinking about betraying Cynthea but decided to not to and I failed and could not speak, how did I know?

Pink bubbles started appearing when I was saying oh siht.

I was in a bubble of electricity And decided, Hey let's give people PTSD by using the foliage to make the piranha plant thing that attacked us at the fountain. A huge giant or something was attacking people and the piranha plant that I made DECAPITAT that thing which scared me to the core.

Argon, the guy that I forgot about because he didn’t do anything, made a portal to somewhere and just went in. We All appeared in a desert and I felt so hot that I needed a popsicle and had again rememberin’t but got to Orinshire and somehow our school just appeared out of thin air. I think I am on drugs or something. What will happen next? What evil will appear? Will we conquer it?

No time. On to a new day, A new threat to be trampled.

Class 5 Defending the circle While everyone was defending the circle and fighting the dark creatures, I decided to take out the darkness from Colena. I took out some of the darkness but it re-transformed into a dark goblin creature. Someone else took out the goblin.

Argon's portal Then we headed to Argon’s portal. I watched some of my classmates step into the portal, and I followed them into the portal. When I was in the portal, it was like one second I was spinning really fast, then the other I arrived in Primar, the desert.

Tyrande and Festo teach you history as you walk through the desert As me and the rest of the class were walking through the desert,Tyrande and Festo taught us history about the desert. I tried to listen as much as I could, but sometimes it would get really hot, and it would get difficult to listen without being bothered by the heat.

Haolin One day a boy is sneaking through the darkness,then he sees a dark figure, it's Colena. She gets bubbled! At this moment a creatures attacked then he fight with the creatures but he run back to school

We were walking through the forest and we saw a figure and Colena went and poked it and kicked it and her head was now a dark black thing. Gior soon put Colena in a bubble and we saw a shadow scorpion.

Cynthia was stung by it and Chris helped and he failed and he cant talk and i grew a mustache and justin z grew a 3rd eye and his face is white. Soon These things vanished. Colena's face was back and we were told that we should go through a portal. Colena didn't want to go in cuz she didn't trust them. Later we were all in and we had landed in a dessert. We found out that we were in Primar. We were very hot and we soon saw a tower. We asked Tyrande and Festo why we were here. They said this was our safety. Tyrande and Festo told us the history as we walked through the desert.

Michael

It started to get dark and we decided to head back to the castle but then some shadowy figures start chasing us so we start defending them with out magic and then when we reached the castle we still had to defend the figure so we started to defend. But soon, we couldnt handle it anymore so professur gilmor made a portal and made us go through it and left him behind to take care of the monsters. WHen we went though the portal, we were in a desert and greeted by Tyrande and Festo who also taught us history while they brought us to the city called the orishire.

As I wake up my body was moving independently as I gained control over my body we were sneaking through the darkness, but as always we fail. Then proffer guile brought us to a mountain. We saw dark smoke everywhere. As we realize it’s the forces of evil. The teachers leap into action blasting fire and water right in shadow figures. Some people can see them some can’t. As I try to help I alternate some things around me into gunpowder and try to blow the shadows up. It’s didn’t work I‘m disappointed. Then I felt warmth, a flash of light appeared then disappeared. I felt my bones strengthening, my blood flowing even quicker and better. I was healed by a spell that fails!? As we fight off the shadows we had to leave and professor Guile was left behind. As we walk we head into a desert and the other teacher gave us a history lesson. After we see the Orinshire as we walk closer we see the gates of Orinshire.

Colena Shan

Date: January 5, 3082 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae School Grounds A bit of a surprise today, to be honest. Anyways, the sun went down and we were finally in front of the school, but I saw no Tower. I blinked, and saw the exact same thing. No tower.

Where did the school go?

Glancing around, I noticed a member of the Crucible, Golvig or Segall—it was hard to tell—leaning against a large rock. His face was black. It was impossible to distinguish the eyes, nose, mouth, or anything on his face, really. I only knew it wasn’t Rennyn or Puck—they were shorter than this guy. Hesitantly, I poked him in the back.

Nothing happened.

I tried again.

Nothing except for Gilmor telling me that’s a horrible idea and Angela telling me to do that again happened.

I tried one more time.

This time—the guy moved. His raised his face towards me, and I felt blackness or something sink into my face. Gilmor cursed, having cast a shield in front of me a moment too late. He snapped his fingers, and I was immediately in a Time-Out Bubble, something Gilmor had learned from Tyrande, the Destruction teacher during the holidays.

I felt some of the blackness go away, and I watched as Rachael, Gilmor, Angela and the first years fight something. Scorpions.

Not exactly unlike the one that had attacked Rachael and Ethan last year, which happened as Dominic injured everyone except for Marysa, Ethan, Rachael and Bingyin.

It was boring in the bubble, but luckily I did not have to stay there for long. Six minutes later, Gilmor hissed at me, “Are you ready now?” and I snapped, “Yes” and fell to the ground.

Leaping to my feet, I waved my hands, hoping to blow a scorpion up. Unfortunately I failed. The side effect I got, however, proved to be not so bad after all. A unicorn named Gerald appeared, called, “YO COLENA!” and charged at the black creatures, scattering them and doing a much better job at fighting than any of us except for maybe Gilmor.

Then I heard a familiar voice.

“You guys! Get into this portal now!” It was Argon, and he appeared to be concentrating hard on something. I turned, and saw a fifth year and a third year jump in…something in the ground.

“WHY SHOULD WE TRUST YOU!?” I screamed.

“I’m trying to help and save you!” Argon yelled at me.

“WELL SINCE WHEN DID YOU DO GOOD STUFF—” “Right now, I’m doing this for your good!” Argon shouted.

We had a very loud and quick argument, which ended when I finally managed to blow something up, and dove into the portal thing screaming, “I’M GOING TO REGRET THIS VERY MUCH!”

******* I was falling through this—well—I don’t exactly know how to describe it. I don’t think it was really falling, more like floating downwards (does that make any sense?) to the bottom, except for the fact I couldn’t see the bottom.

Angela followed me shortly afterwards. I was surprised. Angela would never listen to Argon, especially if it was about ensuring her safety. I assumed that Gilmor or Argon had dragged her into the portal—otherwise they used Magic to get her in. It just

seemed so unlikely that she’d jump in willingly. And yet, Rachael told me she had. First and last time she’d obey Argon I think, about anything like this.

******* Location: Eridin Desert, Primar When I was no longer in that portal-whatever-you-want-to-call-it thing, I felt my feet touch something soft. It was sand. I glanced around. I knew we were in a desert. The only desert I know is called Eridin Desert, and it is in the Region of Primar. I assumed that was where we were now. The only reason I knew about Eridin at all was because Gil was from Primar and Rachael and I had wanted to learn about the teachers and piece together clues about Rengar, Gustav, Humo, Grattus, and anything else that seemed connected, in a way, to Rengar.

Glancing around, I saw no sign of Gilmor, even though I knew the portal had closed up. Was it possible he didn’t come with us? Rachael was the last of us to get into the portal, and she informed me that she did not see Gil after she was punched by something into the portal.

The only adults I saw were Lady Tyrande, a tall, blue-skinned elf who was very strict and taught Destruction, Sir Festo, a short, whimsical man that looked like Santa Claus and was the Professor of Illusion, and Argon, holding his lantern, looking a bit worried.

I also noticed that the third to seventh years were talking in low tones to each other. The second years, Erica, Melissa, Kylie, Ethan, Jayden, Bingyin, Vanessa and Elizabeth were looking rather grim.

I saw no sign of Marysa.

At that point, I realized Gustav must’ve revealed himself. And was probably responsible to what happened to the school.

Tyrande quickly explained to me, Rachael, Angela, and the first years what had happened. Of course, it was about Gustav.

What she said was this.

“Well…Marysa has been acting very odd lately,” she began. I rolled my eyes. “And up until today, most if not all, didn’t know why. Well…today, shortly after your group left, she…tried to recruit herself into the Jerry network.”

That sounded like one of the last things the real Marysa would do.

Lady Tyrande continued, “The Jerrys share a hive mind [insert stuff about everything one Jerry knows, the rest know it too].

Well…the Jerrys are protectors of a lot of mysterious and secret information…and…well…like I said, Marysa tried to recruit herself into the Network. And that was when we realized that it was not our own, dear Marysa, but the former Professor of Alteration, Professor Gustav.”

I knew it. I knew it. It’s too late to try to get the Amulet now.

Tyrande went on, “We now assume that when Marysa trapped Gustav in the Amulet back at Corpora Gravis the Graveyard, they—they somehow swapped places. We think Marysa is really dead.”

No, I thought, She’s not dead. The Gustav she trapped was an illusion. That’s your weakness Tyrande, you can’t tell the difference between an illusion and reality. Gustav trapped her in the Amulet, but she didn’t die. She’s still alive.

“You know that she’s—” I began, but Festo interrupted.

“Gustav was a powerful mage, and sometimes, not even we could win in a battle against him—” “Speak for yourself,” Tyrande said.

Festo glanced at Argon briefly, then said, “Gustav was also Argon’s foster father.”

Rachael, Angela, and I were like, “WHAT!?” The first years watched us, looking confused.

That must’ve been what Gustav meant when he said “It was easy getting past my old friend, Argon” in Marysa’s bedroom, I thought.

“Well yes,” Festo said, “Argon was adopted by Gustav when he was young. Anyways, you know how Argon can do amazing magic and stuff and never fails and gets a side effect?”

I nodded, and Festo continued, “Well—he could never use magic to attack…and Gustav was kind of…disappointed by that, I think.”

“It’s quite a unfortunate Professor Gilmor couldn’t join us here today,” Tyrande said. “Especially as he knows this place so well. We are in Eridin Desert, in—” Primar, of course!

“And he’s the Protector of his people,” I added.

Tyrande nodded, and she asked Argon, “Are you gonna tell us why you brought us here?”

Argon’s only response was, “It’s someplace safe.”

“You still didn’t tell us what Gustav did to the Tower,” I said to Tyrande and Festo.

“Oh…no…that was Argon. He packed the Tower up, after Gustav…” Tyrande broke off, looking troubled. “We’re planning settle someplace else.” She shrugged. “Come on, let’s get to the city.”

“Orrinshire?” I guessed.

One teacher gone, I thought, not a good sign. This must be part of Gustav’s plan, whatever that is.

I took out the book containing all of the stuff Rachael and I figured out, and added everything Festo and Tyrande had told us today. It just seemed dumb not to.

******* Date: January 6, 3082 Location: Orrinshire, Capital of Primar When we reached the gates to the city, the Grand Vizier came to meet us, saying something to Tyrande that made her flush, something that didn’t happen very often.

“Not on business for Icelandia?” I heard the Vizier say to her. Icelandia was the home of the Frost Elves, and Tyrande was born there. I heard something about her being the Ambassador of Icelandia or something, but I didn’t think it was important. I was busy jotting down the Side Effect which had happened to me earlier.

“No…about the school,” Tyrande nodded at a couple of students, including Rachael.

“Ah, I see,” said the Vizier, turning to Argon. “You will need?”

“Just a large space,” was Argon’s request.

******* Soon enough, I found myself facing a brown tent.

“Get in there,” Argon ordered us. It seemed way too small to fit even fifteen people, let alone the whole school. However, note the use of the word seemed.

“So—you enchanted this tent or what?” I asked Argon.

“Of course I did, Colena, you know me better than that,” he said.

I went inside of the tent, followed by the students of M Litterae Est Magicae.

“Eyy!” called the familiar, annoying voice of Jerry the Jouster, waving at us. The tower seemed to have more floors than usual.

Somebody explained to me that each floor belonged to a different year, which explains why the first years were standing behind me—normally they’d have a whole tower to themselves.

I was tempted to go to the Kitchens and grab a snack—ahem—I didn’t eat any lunch or dinner—but I thought I should go have a look inside Marysa’s room first—maybe I could find the Amulet!

The Magical Elevator was there too. I got on, followed by the first years, Rachael, and Angela. Angela now had Snouty in her arms, saying something to her illusionary platypus.

I noticed that Marysa’s room was still there. It felt a bit creepy when I walked inside. Doggo was nowhere in sight. I searched the room for a bit, but I found no sign of the Amulet. Gustav must’ve taken it with him when he revealed himself. I left the room, no longer hungry, but a bit disappointed.

I returned to my own room, lay on my bed thinking, before finally falling asleep.

SESSION SIX

Orrinshire

Rachael January 6, 3802 ince shopping sprees were not my thing, I decided to stay in the tower while everyone else - save for Colena and Angela - went into the city. Jerick and Haolin decided to go to a candy shop, Grace just decided to wander around the city, Justin, Chris, Cynthia and Michael went to buy weapons and the other Justin went to find a lake.

The sky was painted a brilliant combination of red, orange, pink, and yellow as the glowing sun slowly dipped into the horizon as day turned to night. The first years slowly dwindled their way back.

Grace arrived last, and just in time, as Tyrande emerged from the tent flap.

“Alright,” she said, “We have a little bit of time to get on with. We’re going to be practicing our Destruction magic. Now, as I understand, you already have some experience in the field of combat with Professor Gil, and that’s going to be useful for tonight, as we head out upon the sands.” She smiled, showing all of her gleaming white teeth in the usual process. “Be sure to pack some water.”

“Why do we have to do it at night?” Colena asked.

“Because it’s much too hot to do it during the day,” Tyrande replied, because she was a frost elf, and, you know, frost elves like things related to frost, not really hot deserts.

“Uh… and it’s not too cold to be doing it at night? Because usually it’s pretty cold at night,” Colena pointed out, “And could you not lie, Tyrande?”

Tyrande narrowed her eyes at Colena. “Well,” she said irritably, “I wasn’t lying, it was much too hot to venture out right onto the sands. But also I did have some business in the city, which is important for the school’s continued success.”

“Tell us about it,” Colena said.

“It seemed that the Grand Vizier was overzealous in his welcome,” Tyrande explained, “And there are those in the city who feel that our presence will draw the eye of the empire. So, I have assured them that we will be more than useful to justify the amount of danger that comes from harbouring fugitives from the empire. Which is what we will be, when they discover that we are gone.”

I scowled at the word fugitives. Did dragging children - against their will - to some random place make the children fugitives? Did having a stupid thing caused by someone killing proper magic make us fugitives?

“Wait… so we’re running away?” Colena asked.

“We didn’t run away, we’re in the middle of a desert.”

“So-” “Now, will we remain in the oasis or will we turn out onto the sands? So first, we have some nice practice,” Tyrande continued as we trudged deeper into the sands, “And then we have a nice, easy, relaxed mission.”

“Could you describe what the ‘nice, easy, relaxed mission’ is?” Colena ejeculated.

“We’re hunting.”

“Hunting doesn’t fall into the category of nice, easy, and relaxing, but what are we hunting?”

“Uh, well, a creature of the desert,” Tyrande said uncomfortably.

“There are many creatures in the desert,” I muttered.

“Uh… a gargantuan mob.” (what?)

“Is it creepy? Is it cute? Is it-” Colena got cut off by Tyrande laughing.

“No, it’s not cute. It’s a worm.”

“Okay, and why are we hunting it?”

“Because it’s three hundred feet long and has a giant mouth.”

“Uh-huh. And that-” “It eats caravans from time to time. And, um, it’s going to be quite an adventure.”

“Okay, so if that’s your definition of easy and relaxing, what’s your definition of extremely difficult-” “It’s a gigantic worm,” Tyrande protested.

“Uh, I couldn’t hear you, could you please repeat that?”

“It’s a dangerous worm, Colena.”

“The thing is, you seem to underestimate a lot of the dangers in life, Tyrande.”

“Listen. I wouldn’t send you on a dangerous mission unless it were absolutely necessary,” Tyrande said, “Now, let’s get started!” She looked like she really really really wanted to end that conversation. “Let’s get some practice in, yes? It’s just important.”

As we headed out, I noticed a different group being led by Sir Festo. Tyrande looked at them and sighed. “There’s a great number of favours that they need solved,” she said, “Perhaps, tomorrow night you will go with Festo. But, for this evening, we hunt. But first we train.”

We headed to another oasis of water. There were no animals here, and no way to know where they went, for the wind had blown over all possible footprints and covered them with newfound sand.

As we looked out, a group of magic lights were slowly drifting out towards the city. They spread out, covering the city with shimmering lights. Thirty-six of them spread out over that oasis, casting a warm, yellowish light to where we stood.

“Now,” Tyrande said, “the art of Destruction is decidedly simple. It may appear to conjure things out of thin air, but really all you’re doing is translating a feed. What you want to do is to destroy whatever it is your target is. Your means of Destruction are up to your own imagination. You could torch them with fire, freeze them with ice, crush them with stone, whatever you fancy. Sometimes you just blast them apart with force.” She looked rather dreamily at the sky, and I thought, I noticed that you didn’t give the whole “patience is incredibly important and you all lack it” speech.

“All that really matters,” she continued, “is that you have a desire. A desire to destroy whatever it is your target is. The desire for destruction, combined with the creativity of the method resolves in extraordinarily powerful magic. This is not Alteration where you communicate with the souls of the forest to shape the world. This is not Illusion, where we are altering the perceptions of our opponents mind. We’re just blasting stuff.”

“I’m starting to regret pledging to Destruction,” I muttered, “Particularly since you described it as ‘just blasting stuff’.”

“Rachael, if you could be so kind as to demonstrate,” Tyrande said, turning to me. I knitted my brows into a scowl. She flicked her hand, and an illusion of a large python appeared. I glared at it rather crossly, and since it was pretty useless to fight an illusion, I did nothing.

“No? Not feeling like it? Alright.” Colena tried to do it, failed to do so, and splashed grease everywhere. Tyrande snapped her fingers, making the illusion non-existent once again.

“Jerick?” she asked, “Could you destroy one of those lights?” She pointed at a random one.

He lobbed some sand into the air, which missed, and Tyrande said, “No. Magic. Shoot it with magic. Decide you want to destroy it, destroy it, and-” She snapped her fingers again, and one light exploded above her, making little sparks fall down. “Go ahead, try it.”

Jerick tried. He failed. He disappeared. He reappeared a moment later, ten feet up in the air, and fell to the ground with a grunt.

“Ah,” Tyrande said optimistically, “That can happen sometimes. Grace, if you would, strike one of the lights, please.”

Grace sort of failed, but not failed. She looked surprised when five bursts of light erupted out of her hand, exploding fifteen light globes before settling down. Tyrande laughed, looking very happy about this. “Well, that’s one way to do it,” she said, “It turns out Grace is a prodigy today. Justin… just maybe shoot something that’s not one of the lights.” A whole bunch of people had come out of their houses in the vicinity, and Justin decided to try to destroy the chess board. Then Cynthia doubled over, and nothing came out of Justin’s hand. “Cynthia,” Tyrande said, “How’re you doing? Uh, just maybe sort of walk along - maybe you could try now? Go on, destroy something.”

Cynthia aimed for the fruit on the trees, which exploded, and made the surrounding crowd applause. She started levitating for some reason, and exploded another fruit, which made the tree very sad because it had one less chance to reproduce.

“Think fast, Haolin!” Tyrande called, picking up one of the fallen fruit and thrusting it towards him. Haolin raised his hands, and the fruit exploded on him at the last second, covering him with the juice.

“Justin,” Tyrande called, “See if you can hit this one out of the air.” She threw another piece of fruit. He tried. He failed. He started glowing. “Oop, don’t get too close to him,” Tyrande said as the piece of fruit smashed to the ground.

“Michael, go on, blow something up,” Tyrande said. He tried and failed, becoming two years older. He grew a teensy bit taller, and his voice started to change. “Woah. Yeah,” Tyrande said, “Umm…” Chris threw an apple in the air and exploded it, which blew the pieces apart like fireworks.

“Cynthia!” Tyrande called over the whooping of the crowd, “Would you like to do the Grand Finale? Try shielding. You think destroy, but for whatever’s coming towards you. Like this!” She fired two fireballs at Cynthia. Cynthia waved her hand, and a blue shield appeared, absorbing the fireballs, and she waved her hand again, firing them off into the air.

“What’s the matter, Cynthia,” Tyrande asked, when Cynthia kept on nervously keeping her eyes trained on something. Cynthia told us that a whole bunch of people carrying spears were coming our way.

“Oh. We probably should get on. They’re probably here for Grace. We should probably go, though,” Tyrande said awkwardly. “Anyway, time to go, class!”

Jerick disappeared and reappeared ten feet away from his original spot. Tyrande ushered us away, and we reached the edge of the city in about five minutes. Cynthia began to lower towards the ground, and as she touched down she did a cartwheel, then stood up, smoothing her ruffled clothes.

As we went, the Grand Vizier appeared, his maroon turban as neat as ever. “Happy hunting, Lady Tyrande. Was that your firework display?”

“Oh,” Tyrande said, even more awkwardly this time. “No, I haven’t any idea of what you’re talking about.”

“Tyrande, don’t lie,” Colena scolded.

“Now, yes, Rachael - I mean Colena - it’s bad to lie. Let’s just get out of the- it’s not like it’s a crime or anything,” Tyrande said sharply.

Then we turned, and walked down the road, plunging into the desert - and almost certain danger.

It took about an hour and a half to get to the centre of the desert, where we stopped. There were some scattered canvas, and some rather violently beaten up pieces of wood.

“Right. This was the site of the incident. It occurred just before dawn yesterday,” Tyrande said. A portion of the pathway dropped away into a valley of sand, which certainly was too careless to be done by workers. Scattered in this valley were more bits of canvas and smashed wood, some of the longer ones half buried in the sand. There were some glinting pieces of metal.

“It came from below them as I understand it,” Tyrande said, “and it just sort of whooshed up, and then coiled right back down. As a result, there’s not much of the way of craft left behind. It’s theorized that they hunt by vibration caused by walking around on the surface. They trigger their sensations and they come in from beneath. It could be below us right now, for all we know.”

“I don’t see it coming by,” Colena pointed out.

“It’s not necessarily coming,” Tyrande replied, “Cynthia was flying earlier, that might be an option, but I don’t know how to get you all in the air at the same time. We’re told it has a migratory pattern. We’re told that it moves towards the north. But frankly, these are the stories of old tales. I have chartered us some assistance - it doesn’t appear to have arrived yet.”

“Can’t you just teach us how to fly?”

“Not tonight, maybe if you give me a few weeks.”

“We could turn into ghosts,” I suggested.

“Turn into ghosts! Well, you see, we’re trying to avoid turning into ghosts. Although… Rachael does have a good point.”

She snapped her fingers and disappeared. The ethereal plane, I thought. Footprints appeared in the sand, and a few paces later, Tyrande reappeared with a snap of her fingers.

“That’s called invisibility,” Colena pointed out.

“No no no, it’s not invisibility. Here. Watch,” she said, snapping her fingers and disappearing once more. She appeared again, and said, “Right. Throw something at me after I disappear.” She disappeared. Colena and I also converted to the ethereal plane. Tyrande looked at us with exasperation.

“Now, throw something at me from inside the Material plane,” she said, “We can do it. We just have to get the first years over here.”

Colena, Tyrande, and I all reappeared. “Okay, we’re going to do something fun,” she said mysteriously, “We’re going to shift our beings to a different plane. Let me put it this way: Have you ever heard of ghosts?”

“I’ve heard them, I’ve seen them, I’ve-” Colena got cut off.

“I’m showing them how it works! Stop talking to me!”

“When people die, their bodies stay on the material plane, and their spirits go to the Astral plane. In between here and the Astral plane is the ethereal plane. A sort of in between - a sort of shadow of this world. And we’re all going to go there today.”

Some dust started picking up further down the pathway, and Tyrande paused before saying, “I had a thought. Over there in the distance is a sort of vehicle designed to cross the sands and not activate the worms. We were going to cruise around on that, but maybe I like this better?”

Oh yes, and here’s the part where I almost died along with everyone else! Cynthia collapsed with pain from attempting to shapeshift, and then a huge fireball erupted from her fingers and blasted everyone. There was a shimmer of a blue shield as Tyrande yelled something unintelligible, and I tried to do the same before the fireball hit us all and I lost my chance.

We got to our feet. Everyone had some kind of burn except Tyrande, who looked annoyed and worried. Colena was on fire. She used destruction magic to splash herself and put out the fire in some places on her clothes, and Tyrande did the same thing, blasting Colena with water until she was left dripping wet with steam rising from the holes peppered in her clothes.

“Right. Right,” Tyrande said as everyone picked themselves up, and she paused for a moment before abruptly saying, “Mission cancelled. We just got an experimental spell, Cynthia almost killed the whole class and herself. Cynthia, you were flying around doing awesome magic earlier, what was that?

Did you get a little bit too excited, a little bit too caught up in it? It’s - alright. It’s understandable.”

“Can you still teach us how to go to the ethereal plane?” Chris asked.

“Well, I mean, it seems kind of important - listen, listen. The mission’s done for tonight, we just got completely rekt, Colena almost died, we’re going to head back, okay? We’re going to head back, and say that we already looked a lot - We’ll just tell the Grand Vizier that we sustained these injuries battling the worm-” “Seriously! More lies!” Colena said indignantly.

“Yes, Colena, more lies. We’re just going to have to just lie here, because we don’t have a choice or we’ll get kicked out.”

“Okay, I’m just going to tell the Grand Vizier that you lied.”

“What, is that an aggressive action for telling the Vizier that we ran from a giant snake? Alright, we’re going to go-” “Does healing magic exist?” I interjected.

“Healing magic… Um… not to me, though we could try a little bit. Primarily that’s Argon’s specialty, but what he uses, it’s not something we really… do. Whatever it is, we don’t know why he’s got that power. And he’s probably unwilling to teach everybody else. But potentially we could ask Argon about it.”

I had had my suspicions ever since Festo told us all that Argon had been raised by Gustav. Was it possible… Was it possible that some of the non-wild magic still existed?

Chris suggested something like making sand into skin and sticking it to ourselves, which Tyrande said was really disgusting, and I agreed.

“Well, look what we’re going to do now.” She pointed at the figure slowly coming towards us. It was a boat, the sails furled. Two strange creatures pulled it - they were giant millipedes. The stern of the boat cut clear slashes into the sand, and the millipedes had reins attached to them, which were held by a man.

Tyrande explained that the millipedes weren’t attacked, so the ship shouldn’t either. Then, as she said that, there was a tremor in the ground. “We have made quite a few vibrations,” Tyrande said, “Nobody move.”

“Why?” Colena asked.

“They hunt through vibrations.”

Colena began to jump, but in mid-air, Tyrande snapped her fingers and trapped her in yet another bubble. I smothered a laugh.

“As I said,” Tyrande continued, “They hunt with vibrations.”

“Like the land sharks?” I asked.

“Correct, Rachael, like the land sharks. Nobody moves, nobody gets killed.” More tremors.

“Unless it chooses to randomly poke its mouth up and eat somebody.”

“Why shouldn’t we try to get killed?” Colena asked.

The bubble shook a little. “That’s a ridiculous question, Colena. Stop trying to suicide all the time. Now, we’ll just stand here until it leaves.”

Then there was a bit of quarreling, and Cynthia tried to do something, and ended up with some feathers on her face in a rather embarrassing beard. “Cynthia - everybody, just chill. Just chill.” Cynthia sneezed, and the beard exploded. “Okay okay okay. Nobody moves. Now we just need to get onto the ship.”

“Can we hijack it,” Michael asked.

“No need to hijack it, Michael, we hired it.”

Haolin tried to climb onto the ship, holding a rope that dangled over the side, but fell backwards, luckily not quite hitting the ground yet. I swiftly climbed another one, then helped Haolin climb on as well. Jerick tried, and had the same result as Haolin. Grace tried, but Jerick’s flailing bumped her backwards, knocking her to the ground. Before she hit the ground, however, Cynthia extended a hand towards her, knocking her out of the air and onto the ship with a thud. The force of this blow, however, shook Jerick loose, who fell backward onto the ground.

And beneath the ground, a monster stirred, eager for a plentiful repast.

So today we have half a day of school! So me and Justin C went to the weaponsmith with a Jerry? They will pay for everything which is very nice. I was talking to the blacksmith and wanted a small lightweight thing that can enhance my destruction and alteration magic. Justin wanted an Explosive Crossbow? He was going everywhere with his weapon. I got lost with what he wanted.

After that we had destruction class, when it was my turn I took an apple and threw it in the air. I made it explode like a firework! I was one of the only people to not fail the magic spell. At night we went on a mission to hunt some sort of sand worm, I call it a wyrm. Cynthea tried to turn into something and a fire medeor appeared from the sky and fell down. All I could remember was a burning feeling on my skin. I was in so much pain but managed to get up. We saw a sand cruiser and tried to get on but someone fell off of it and made some vibrations and the sand worm that was under us.

Today was a day off. I decided to go to the weapon store. Soon when we were done I went to the candy store and the owner gave me a suitcase full of gum. We soon did destruction class and we were doing so so.

WHen we woke up, we decided to explore the big city and so me and my friend went to a candy store so when we arrived a old lady introduced herself and let us choose which candy we wanted. I chose a super sour lemon candy i might have regret getting it though.THen, we met back at camp and we practiced spells and then someone blasted a huge fireball and everyone lost so much health we tried to retreat but a huge ship was sailing on land and it was the giant sand worm we were going to fight so we tried to climb the ship but i failed multiple times.To be continued...

Colena Shan

Date: January 7, 3082 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae, except we’re in Orrinshire, Capital of Primar now.

I woke up at 5 in the morning. I lay down on bed for a long time, remembering what had happened, while inspecting a half-healed injury. The tower was gone, Gustav revealed himself, Argon packed up the tower, made a portal that all the students, Tyrande, Festo and Argon went through, leaving Gilmor behind, bringing us to Eridin Desert in Primar and leading us to Orrinshire.

Suddenly, I had a thought. What if the Amulet was still in the school? But…who would know?

The Jerrys. If they don’t know, nobody does. Maybe I can even ask them about the stuff Gustav tried to steal!

Jerry-Rachael and Jerry-Dominic seemed to be the most likely to tell me. But I didn’t see either of them anywhere last night, so I figured I should try Library Jerry.

“Good morning everybody!” called twelve different voices as one, a few hours later. It was the Jerrys, waking us up. I glanced at the clock. They were waking us a an hour earlier than usual…had something bad, good, or exciting happened?

“We’re waking you up earlier than usual, sorry about that,” the Jerrys continued, “because there’s an announcement to make.”

“About what?” I muttered impatiently as they paused for a moment.

“The teachers had a discussion and decided that all classes today are cancelled—you’ll have some free time in the morning and most of the afternoon,” the Jerrys continued.

“Is it a lou day?” I asked them.

“It’s just a very hot day and the teachers thought, ehh, no point getting heat exhaustion,” the Jerrys answered, “so—unfortunately, if you want to sleep in, that’s literally impossible in this Tower. But if you want to hang out, or explore the city and stuff like that, you’re welcome to do so. Just make sure you take a Jerry guide with ya, we’ll be waiting outside by the door.”

“You mean portal to outside this pocket dimension thing,” I muttered darkly. “Also, did you have to wake us up an hour early just to tell us we had the day off?”

******* During breakfast, I sat with Tyrande. I sometimes sat with at Gil and Festo’s tables, hoping to hear some information, but I usually stayed with Rachael to discuss random stuff.

Breakfast was…weird. Usually, you can’t chuck food at each other—but now we’re in the same room, same dimension, same whatever, so now we can. I seized this opportunity to throw four croissants, three loaves of bread, two pancakes, and one bread roll at random people’s heads, which was quite entertaining, until I was forced to stop by Tyrande, who told me to stop wasting food.

I watched Angela sitting with a group of pledged Alteration third years and Kylie, muttering to each other. There was a chair empty at the table, clearly Gil’s. I wondered where he was.

Festo’s table looked about the same: Festo creating illusions of kittens, puppies and other adorable animals for his students to enjoy playing with during mealtime.

Tyrande’s table was also unchanged, though some of the students might’ve thrown more bread rolls than usual. Rachael and I were sitting on Tyrande’s immediate right (well, Tyrande just likes to sit with her favourite student), eating quietly, when she spoke up, addressing the two of us.

“Enjoyed your breakfast, dear?” she said, smiling at Rachael, who looked blankly at her. “I’ll be doing something in town today. Later this evening, I’ll be conducting our first year Destruction Class—you two already have experience with this group. Uh…I would like it if you were my teaching assistants in that section.”

“And Angela,” Lady Tyrande added.

******* Chris immediately declared he wanted to spend his morning getting a weapon or something. He also called himself “fragile” and “frail” and planned to get some armor. Justin C, Michael, and Cynthia had similar plans, and left the tower, accompanied by a Jerry that would pay for their stuff with Gilder, the currency of Primar (no, it’s not named after Gilmor, but it would make sense if it was, I suppose).

Jerick and Haolin both wanted to get some tasty candy, and left with another Jerry. Justin Z apparently wanted to go to an oasis, did some random stuff there but had a lot of fun anyways, and Grace just wanted to explore Orrinshire.

Rachael and I stayed back at the school, heading straight for the Library. Library Jerry was not there just yet, and I slid a book from its shelf, deciding to read as I waited.

Half an hour later, Library Jerry appeared, and I put the book down and walked up to him.

“Hello,” I said, trying to be polite.

“Hey, how ya doing?” Library Jerry said cheerfully.

“Can you tell me about the information Gustav tried to steal?” I asked.

“Wow, uh, it was very important. It wasn’t anything specific though, Colena,” Library Jerry replied. “He…just kind of wanted all of it…you know what I mean? He wanted the whole database…”

“Me too,” I said, “so please tell me everything.”

“Well…that would probably kill you,” Library Jerry said, “’cause like you humans can’t contain it in your small brains.”

“Ok…just tell me some then,” I said, slightly impatient.

“Yeah sure!” Library Jerry said. “Alright…okay…on…the fifteenth of January, 37 years ago, there was a food fight that broke out in the cafeteria and Lady Tyrande got very upset and cancelled class for the whole day. On the sixteenth of January, everybody got assigned double homework, and there was a lot of complaining. One student threw a textbook in the fireplace as a form of protest—that was dumb, let me tell you, oh my goodness, have you tried, ever, to piece back a burned textbook?”

I shook my head and said, “I mean, like anything that would actually tell me about Gustav or Rengar?”

“Ohhh…Gustav! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah—” (Stop saying “yeah”s) “—yeah. Yeah, alright. Gustav, um…talented teacher, much liked by most of the students…a little bit tough on some of the younger ones…uhh…Professor Gil’s much nicer…Gustav had…Oh! You want like…gossip on Gustav?” he said.

“Not exactly, just information,” I said.

“Yeah…tell you what. Tell you what, Colena, I give you lots of information, you never give me nothing. Tell me something juicy,” he said.

“Um…orange juice?”

“Ohh…that’s a good one, Colena, I like that one,” Library Jerry said, “no, give me some—dar—some goss. That’s the only thing we have, you know, information. We can’t eat or drink or buy stuff. We can create money—that’s a cool power—but we don’t need money. What’s the worst thing you ever did?”

“I….uhh…well…uh…I…uh….Probably yell at Gilmor,” I replied.

“Why did you yell at Gil?” Library Jerry asked.

“He was being as stupid as you are,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Oh my, you got a feud going on with a teacher?” Library Jerry said. “You had a fight with a teacher?”

“No, he just refuses to believe what is true,” I replied. “And perfectly reasonable stuff.”

“Like what?”

“I think you would know,” I said quietly. This was true—because I told Jerry-Rachael about Marysa, and since they all share thoughts, Library Jerry should know too. “I told Jerry-Rachael—” “Oh, that stuff,” Library Jerry said. “Alright, alright, alright. I’ll give you something. Gustav…had this little brick…in the back of his office…that was fake…and he used to hide stuff behind it…and as far as I know…nobody ever checked it after they took him away.”

“So…it’s in Professor Gilmor’s office?” I asked.

“Yeah….”

“Can you tell me which brick it is?”

“No…” “If I told you some more information, would you tell me which one it is?”

“Maybe…”

Rachael watched us without speaking a single word.

“What…what type of information do you like?” I asked Library Jerry.

“Just gossip,” he responded, “something that could really wreck a person, you know? And the stuff that makes people unhappy if others knew about it…”

“O-ok…well—can you continue telling me about the stuff that happened 37 years ago?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure, totally!” Library Jerry said. “On the seventeenth of January, the fifth years split into three groups—four would go to Tyrande’s office, four would go to Gil’s office, and the other four would go to Festo’s office. They apparently demanded that they never get homework again and…”

After I heard, “On the twelfth of March, 23 years ago, everyone except for the teachers exited from the Dining Hall after lunch covered in different types of foods in the most epic food fight in the history of the School, Argon used his magic to make it that first years could only throw stuff at first years, second years could only throw stuff at the second years—you get the idea. Anyways, if a fifth year tried to throw a dripping ketchup bottle at a third year after that, the bottle would simply disappear—until now I guess—”, I left to see which of the first years had returned.

It was four in the afternoon according to my watch. Two first years were holding weapons at dangerous angles, two first years were clutching slips of paper, a few students were eating candy and they all seemed like they had a lot of fun. It was only after a minute did we realize something.

Grace was missing.

She returned just before dinner. Curious, I asked her what she had seen.

In the morning, Grace had seen a puppet show, about four people fighting a gigantic worm or snake. It had ended with the four people being eaten, much to the surprise of the audience.

She’d been walking around town later, and was heading towards a diner just to escape the heat, and saw a giant man, who looked like he weighed 400 pounds, burst through the doors of a nearby shop with a dazed look on his face. He screamed something random at the sky, and ran towards the market. Grace had sat down at a café and was served by a rather scared-looking girl. Grace was apparently drinking tea, watching a guy playing the flute. She also said something about a snake swaying dangerously close to some of the listening children, before eventually going back to sleep.

As she headed back, she saw a mouse, being chased by a cat, who was being chased by a dog, who was being chased by a young boy.

“Rusty, just come back already!” was what the boy said, according to Grace.

Grace easily caught the dog, and offered it to the boy, who nodded gratefully and left. And then, barely five seconds later, a young girl appeared, screaming, “Tina, Tina, come back!”

******* Location: Orrinshire, Primar Tyrande quickly explained some stuff about Destruction to the first years, and told us that we’d be fighting some stuff in the sands or something. She smiled towards us, and said, “Be sure to pack some water.”

“Why did we have to do it at night?” I asked.

“Because it is much too hot to be doing during the day,” Tyrande answered.

“Uh…and it’s not too cold to do it during the night? Deserts are hot during the day, but pretty cold during the night,” I said.

Tyrande was obviously not being completely honest with me.

“Um…can you not lie, Tyrande?” I said. I know it’s rude to accuse people of lying right to their faces but I don’t care.

She narrowed her eyes. “Well…I wasn’t lying, really…it is far too hot to do during the day. But also I did have some business in the city to support the school’s continued success here,” Tyrande glared at me.

“Tell us about it,” I said.

“Yes…sure…why not,” Tyrande muttered darkly and perfectly audibly to herself. “It seems that the Grand Vizier was…over…zealous in his welcome…and there are those in the city that fear our presence here…will draw the eye of the Empire.”

That was understandable.

“So,” Tyrande went on, “I assured them that we would be more than useless to justify the danger that comes from harboring…well…fugitives of the Empire…which is what we will be when they discover that we are gone.”

For the Destruction Class, Lady Tyrande created a snake and asked Rachael to blow it up. Rachael refused, and I tried instead.

Guess what. I failed. This time, I got the Grease Side Effect, spraying some grease on everyone.

Jerick’s task was to blast one of the lights. He threw some sand in the air, spraying us all with sand. The heck?!

“No—shoot it with magic,” Tyrande instructed. “Focus on it, think about the way you want to do it.” She snapped her fingers, and one of the lights above exploded, little sparks falling down on us. “Go on, try it.”

Jerick flicked his hands as well, failing miserably. He vanished. Moments later, he appeared ten feet up in the air, and fell to the ground. Oof. That must’ve hurt.

“Ah, yes, that can happen sometimes,” Tyrande said. “Uh…Grace? If you would, strike one of the lights please.”

Grace attempted to do so, but she had about as much success as Jerick. She got the Side Effect: Whatever was in front of her would explode. She raised her hand, blasting fifteen lights, glass flying everywhere.

“Hahahaa!” Tyrande cackled, sounding like an evil witch. “It turns out Grace is a bit of a prodigy! Justin!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a group of people, coming out from the buildings, looking curious and wondering what all the commotion was about. They didn’t look like they were going to do anything bad though, so I ignored them.

“Justin,” Tyrande said to Justin C, “maybe shoot something that’s not one of the lights.”

Justin C raised his hands, waved them in the air, and failed. His side effect was: Wild Magic is expelled, but not directed. His spell zapped Cynthia, who winced, stumbling.

Tyrande approached Cynthia. “Cynthia, how are you doing? Right, let’s just walk it off. Maybe you should try now. Go on, destroy something.”

She successfully wrecked a few fruits on a nearby tree, causing juice to spill everywhere, and the crowd gasped, “WHOA!” and applauded. And then she started flying up into the air, about 60 feet above us. Cynthia kept blasting more fruit for no reason, causing more people to appear.

“Think fast, Haolin!” Tyrande called, thrusting a rather large orange at him. Haolin raised his hands and the orange exploded.

As a result, he was now dripping orange juice.

“Justin!” Tyrande said, pointing at Justin Z. She thrust an apple to the sky. “See if you can hit it out of the air.”

Justin Z failed, glowing bright red light.

“Oh…don’t get too close to him…he’s very bright…I don’t know what else to say,” Tyrande said, inching away from Justin Z. “Michael, go on, blow something up. We have an audience, we have to entertain them.”

Whatever Michael wanted to blow up, he failed at it, and became slightly taller. Damn, did he just age by 2 years?

“Whoa, yeah, right, that’s enough,” Tyrande said. The crowd looked really confused. “Chris?”

Chris threw an apple in the air, and it blew up. The crowd was whooping now.

“Cynthia, would you like to do the grand finale?” Tyrande called. “Attempt to shield this time. Like these two fireballs.”

Tyrande flicked her hands, creating two fireballs that shot up towards Cynthia. Cynthia made a complicated movement with her hands, a shield appeared, the fireballs rebounded, and vanished into the night. Probably would burn down somebody’s house, but I didn’t really care. The locals started to clap.

“What’s the matter, Cynthia?” Tyrande asked, for Cynthia was looking worriedly to the north.

“There’s some people from the palace, running in our direction, wielding spears,” Cynthia responded.

“Ah yes,” Tyrande sighed, “probably the—they’re probably here for Grace. We should probably go, though. Time to go, time to go!”

Suddenly, Jerick vanished and reappeared 10 feet further in the direction we were supposed to go. He looked confused, nervous, and a little uncomfortable, but it did speed things up.

We reached the edge of the city in about five minutes, and once we got to the gate, Cynthia flipped in midair, and landed with her feet on the ground.

I wonder how Argon’s doing.

The Grand Vizier approached Tyrande at the Gate. I didn’t trust him, for some reason.

“Happy hunting, my lady,” he said, his eyes narrowed. “I just thought I’d see you off. Was that your firework display that was going on?”

“Ye—” I began, but I was cut off by a sharp look from Tyrande, who said firmly, “No, I haven’t a single clue of what you’re talking about, come along, children.”

As soon as we were out of earshot, I spat at Tyrande, “Why’d you lie? Don’t lie!”

“Rachael—” (MY NAME IS COLENA) “—Colena, you’re right, lying’s bad. Just—just don’t confess to crimes in front of other people,” Tyrande snapped.

“But—” “That’s enough.”

We spent a little while, walking along a road. An hour and half later, we came across a tattered canvas and smashed pieces of wood.

“Well,” Tyrande said, glancing around, “this was the site of the incident, it occurred just before dawn yesterday morning.” She sighed. “It came from below them, as I understand it, and it just sort of whooshes up, and coils right back down. As a result, there’s no tracks….and not much is known. It is theorised that they hunt by feel. Vibrations caused by walking around the surface trigger their sensations and they hunt us front beneath. Could be below us, for all we know.”

“That’s a nice, comforting thought,” I said.

“It’s not meant to be comforting, Colena,” Tyrande snapped, annoyed. “Cynthia was flying earlier, that seems like an interesting option, I don’t know how to get you all on the air at the same time…it’s somewhat risky.” She muttered something about north. “I have chartered us some assistance, it doesn’t seem to have arrived just yet. Any ideas?”

“Can you teach us how to fly?” I asked.

“Not tonight,” said Tyrande unhelpfully. “Maybe if you give me a few years.”

“What about turning into ghosts?” one of the first years asked.

“Turn into ghosts!” said Tyrande, shocked, “we’re trying to avoid that!”

“What about Ethereal Plane?” Rachael suggested. I’d been thinking the exact same thing, but I didn’t want the first years knowing about it.

“Rachael has a good point,” Tyrande agreed, and with a flash, she vanished.

Footprints were being left in the sand, and a moment later, she reappeared. She vanished, reappeared, and said, “Throw something at me after I disappear.” She vanished again. Rachael and I didn’t throw anything, we just went onto Ethereal Plane ourselves.

On the Ethereal, I noticed Tyrande, looking at Rachael and I with exasperation.

“Throw something at me from at—in the Material Plane!” she said irritably. “To demonstrate the fact that they can’t hit us! We just need to get the first years in here.”

The three of us returned to Material, and Tyrande addressed the first years, explaining about the Ethereal Plane, but never mentioning how to get on. What the heck.

“Have you ever heard of ghosts?” Tyrande said.

“I’ve heard them, I’ve seen them, I’ve—” “Not you!” Tyrande hissed at me. “I know you have.”

She continued speaking about ghosts and spoke something about Astral Plane.

Ten minutes into her lecture, I noticed dust flying up down the pathway.

“I have an idea,” said Tyrande, “down there is a vehicle designed to traverse the sands and stuff…but maybe I like this better.”

Cynthia was screaming, “No, no, no, no, no, no!”

Cynthia attempted to shape-shift and failed, and got the exact same Side Effect Dominic did in his first ever Illusion Class, blasting us all with fire.

Since I was drenched in grease—therefore flammable, I was now on fire. It was kind of painful, but I screamed, “EPIC!” much to the surprise of many of my classmates. Tyrande shouted as a blue shield whipped up. I waved my hands, and a giant wave of water conjured out of nothing put me out.

“Okay,” said Tyrande, “mission’s cancelled. Mission is cancelled. We just had an experimental spell from Cynthia, she almost killed the whole class, and almost herself…Cynthia…did you get carried away? Alright, we’re saying these burns are from our battle with the Worm.”

“Seriously? More lies?” I shouted indignantly.

“Yes, Colena, more lies, or we’d be kicked out into the sands,” Tyrande said.

“I’m going to tell the Grand Vizier the truth,” I snapped.

“Yeah…we may place Colena in a protective cone before we go through the Gates.”

Chris said something dumb, that I will not jot down here.

“We’d better go,” Tyrande muttered. After a query from the first-years about Healing Magic, she explained only Argon could do it or something.

A ship was being towed by two giant millipedes, approaching us. The side of the ship said Aurojackson.

“GET ON!” somebody shouted.

Tyrande said some random information about the ship approaching, but I didn’t listen. I felt a tremor, rumbling through the ground.

“We have made quite a few vibrations, I suppose. Nobody move,” she ordered.

“Why?” “It hunts by vibrations.”

“That’s interesting.”

I immediately started to jump up and down. With a snap of her fingers, Tyrande had put me into her Time-Out Bubble.

“Like the Land Sharks?” Rachael spoke up.

“Correct, Rachael, like the Land Sharks,” Tyrande said. “Now. Nobody move. Nobody gets killed.”

“Why shouldn’t we get killed?” I asked.

Tyrande flicked her hands skyward, and the bubble shook me. “That’s a ridiculous question, Colena,” she snarled. “Don’t try to commit suicide and try not to kill us! We’ll just stand here for the rest of the night until it leaves.”

“Tyrande, why did you have to make the boringest class in 5000 years?” I demanded.

“I have a question,” Chris said.

“Yes, Chris,” said Tyrande, ignoring my query.

“Can you teach us how to go on the Ethereal Plane thingy?”

“I think casting spells right now is a terrible idea,” Tyrande replied. “Why don’t we play a game of 20 Questions? Everyone, I am thinking of something, you have 20 questions. Go on.”

“Is it about how stupid and noisy we are? And how you hate us all except for Rachael?” I asked at once.

“Incorrect, one question down,” Tyrande said.

“Does it have anything to do magic?” Cynthia demanded.

“Yes.” “Is it Destruction Magic?” I asked.

“No.” “Was it the failed transformation?” Chris asked.

“No.” “Is it the Worm?” I snapped.

“YES!” Tyrande screamed. “Yes! The worm that can kill us any second!”

She calmed herself down. “When that ship comes, get on it!” Lady Tyrande told us.

“Or we could hijack it,” Chris said.

“We don’t need to hijack it,” Tyrande said patiently.

Cynthia grew a beard of feathers from a failed spell. I yelled at her to sneeze. She did so, managing to keep still.

I started screaming random, incoherent words, causing Tyrande to glare at me but she didn’t say anything.

Haolin attempted to get on the ship, gripped the ropes, and attempted to heave himself up. He failed miserably, as Rachael seized Haolin and dragged him on the boat, climbing aboard herself.

Jerick was up next. He failed to get on. So did Grace. Cynthia hurried towards Jerick and Grace, managing to use magic to get Grace on the boat. It was still kind of painful though, for Grace.

Jerick completely failed to get on as he attempted to do it the second time. He slipped on the ground, causing a great thump and causing tremors through the ground.

Last thing I remember before Tyrande released the Time-Out Bubble on me was Angela, Rachael, Jerick, Grace, the Justins, Chris, Michael, Haolin, Cynthia, and the boat and its captain diving into the Worm’s mouth, noticing a gigantic tooth as we did so.

Excuse me, I going to go die in a Worm’s mouth.

SESSION SEVEN

The Worm

Rachael January 6, 3802 he worm twisted around, screeching, with a sort of black bile pouring out of its mouth. Tyrande zipped around it faster than was possible under normal circumstances. She was a blur of light pausing here to blast magic at the worm, then zipping away when the worm swiveled around before stopping again to repeat the cycle. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.

Since I like to be annoying, I’m going to teach a bit of physics before I get on with it. The force of gravity is equivalent to 9.8 metres per second squared (this is Newtonian stuff. Not sure if that’s a word).

So, g = 9.8 m/s2.

This means that gravity accelerates you by 9.8 metres per second.

I’m going to pretend h = height, which means the height you’re falling from. In this case, it’s 100 metres.

So then, to calculate the speed, you find the square root of (2 x h ÷ 9.8). One hundred multiplied by two is obviously two hundred, which then means you have to divide by 9.8. This gives you the result of 20.4081633, which I know has a lot of decimal places, but you know what? DEAL WITH IT. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. The square root of 20.4081633 is 4.51753952, which I’m going to round to 4.52 because I’m not saying that many decimal places.

The formula for velocity is the square root of (2 x g x h). Now, two times 9.8, is, as you all probably know, 19.6. That, times one hundred, is obviously one thousand nine hundred sixty. The square root of that is 44.2718872. Which rounds to 44.27. So the velocity at impact is 44.27 m/s, which is equivalent to 159.38 km/h.

But then there’s air friction, which is ignored in this formula. Terminal velocity, which is when gravity stops accelerating because of air friction, stops you from falling at about 320 km/h. It takes more than 50 metres for this to matter a lot, but once you pass 50 metres you end up not caring much, as long as you get out of the fall alive. And at that moment, I really really didn’t care much, so I’m not going to include air friction as I’m describing a part that I don’t care if it has air friction or not. So, now that you’ve got your physics lesson, let’s see what it’s like being me in the hardest four seconds of my life.

4.52 seconds until impact.

The wind whistled in my ears as I plummeted, the world spinning and black dots dancing before my eyes. I twisted to see the worm recoil for a moment after a flash of light illuminated the dawn, and then Tyrande continued to twirl around the worm, and the worm snapped upwards, missed its target, and snarled in frustration. Then the world started spinning again.

Apparently I need to correct my memory, because Cynthia’s platform that supposedly blew up was still intact, but now glowing violet. Chris’s pillar was slowly collapsing into a giant mound of sand.

There was also a potted cactus falling, which was otherwise known as Chris the cactus because he got turned into a potted plant because of a side effect.

Three full seconds until impact.

Grace pushed me away from the platform, and I spun awkwardly through the air, which did not delay my imminent death. Ouch. I waved my hand, and a pool about one metre seventy centimetres

deep appeared below me. Cynthia had steadied herself into a glide with her wings, and the others were casting their spells - save for Chris, of course, because he was currently stuck with being a potted plant.

Colena was on the ethereal plane. The wind grew louder. I plummeted faster. Gravity accelerated the drop (not helpful). Cue more spinning.

Jerick was staring around like he had no idea where he was, which isn’t the best side effect to get when you’re falling one hundred metres.

Two full seconds until impact.

Justin No. 1 got a parachute-shield thing, which he reached out to the other Justin with and they both started floating peacefully towards the ground. Jerick still looked confused. Michael tried to do something and failed, disappearing as both Justins swayed towards him. Wonderful result. Cynthia swooped in and grabbed Chris. The wind continued to whistle. The speed continued to accelerate. My chances of dying continued to increase. The world continued to spin.

One second until impact.

Nothing happened, except bright flashes of light that nearly made me pass out again (courtesy of Tyrande). Angela was holding onto a Floumph. The ground spiraled closer and closer, and I saw the first few people land.

Impact.

Grace touched down first, on the raised platform, glancing around. Haolin attempted to get to the platform but didn’t make it. Instead, she crashed down into the mound of soft sand that used to be Chris’s pillar and rolled off with ease, somersaulting towards the ground.

Chris the potted plant became Chris the no longer potted plant, and Cynthia dropped him. He hit the ground feet first, and then his knees shot up as he tried to do what Haolin did before realizing he was already on the ground. He had blood on his lips, presumably from biting his lip because he did knee himself in the chin.

A person-sized imprint appeared in the sand a few paces away, presumably Michael. A whole bunch of footprints appeared in the sand as Michael appeared.

Both Justins looked rather amused as everyone died.

Jerick also impacted the ground rather hard, and rolled over with a groan. He ended up face first in the sand, and didn’t seem to mind at all as he smiled and yelled towards the ground, “Hello ground, I’m Jerick!” He was extending his hand out into the ground to shake hands with the ground. Not sure how that works, but it must have been painful.

Angela floated down gently on her Floumph, which would disappear as soon as I hit the water, which made her fall.

And I just had to watch all the painful landings, because I was the last to hit the ground. Or rather, the water. I pulled my hands into a rather sloppy streamline position a metre before I hit the embarrassingly tiny pool I made. There was a splash as I hit the water, and a lot of pain tore through my body before my lungs burned and I sank into darkness, which swallowed me willingly amid the flashes of light that broke through the daylight.

I woke up simultaneously with Chris and Jerick. We automatically looked up, and there was this dark void that opened to nothingness, and beyond that, more nothingness, which led to more nothingness, with a path that paved the way for more nothingness… Well, you get the point. We were

all in a boat - made of plywood, in perfect condition, presumably new, pristine, well crafted. In the middle of the boat, floating there, in a lantern that glowed bright white, was Argon, who had his eyes closed and was muttering feverishly under his breath. It looked horribly unnatural, though the lantern did emit warm light.

Then I looked over the side of the boat, as did the others, and I saw seams. A whole bunch of almost translucent but glowing white seams (that doesn’t make sense), entwining with others, extending in all directions, connecting with others coming from different directions. I looked down into the water, it gave a feeling of security, of safety, and of reassuring calming.

A voice enunciated from the lantern. It was Argon’s voice, and it was much like how Tyrande had communicated with us before. Come on back, Argon said, There’s more to be told in your story. I know you want to rest, but we’ve got further to go.

Then I had a strong desire to touch the lantern. To touch it, and go back into the world in peace.

Like it was the right choice. But there was nothing compelling or forcing me to do it. Chris looked more closely at the lantern, as did Jerick. I saw Argon, muttering, his eyes half closed. I saw myself, asleep on a cot. Chris reached out tentatively and touched the lantern, then faded in a glimmer of white light. In the lantern, he sat up in his bed.

Jerick was the next to go. He, too, glittered almost into the lantern, and sat up in his cot. I sat there, weighing odd against odd, reason against reason, because on one hand, family was something I'd never truly had, while on the other, I hadn’t really lost the will to live.

Hoping I wasn’t going to regret this, I reached out and pressed a finger to the lantern, and let the warmth carry me away.

-Angela

“We are glad you are here Maxwell, we are in a bit of trouble” Tyrande says as she leaps efortlesslty on the ship. One boy in the class falls as we bouard and landed hard on the ship, Maxwell paled. The sand rumbles, and sharp teeth come out as well as a tongue The worm I thought Maxwell steers the ship but the mouth is too big, more sand goes in the gigantic worm's mouth and we fall in deeper. I glance at Lady Tyrande who looks rather worried which means it's really bad since I don’t see her get worried too much. Me and Colena look at each other and grin, we then steer the ship towards the mouth of the worm, “FIRE!” I launch buckets of piercing sharp wood splinters Then we steer the ship closer to the mouth once again. Many of my classmates scream and shout gibberish as they hold the rail and we reverse a little, “oh come on scaredy cats” I teased, as I said this, a big watery tongue reaches out of its mouth.

We steer forward again, I wave my arms as enormous icicles shoot from my hand lunging towards the tongue. I see my friends shooting fireballs, lightning, stones, and whatever else you can think of. It twists away back in its mouth with a deep rumbled and high pitch sound “Bye guys see ya later, I’ve had enough, ” Chris says and leaps out off the boat landing on a small little bug that scurries away Ugh Scaredy Cat Chris, the others are all probably scared, but they don’t just abandon their mission! I grumbled “Lol bye traitor” Colena spats and I totally agreed with her. We steer even closer and we see two tongues come out. “It has two tongues?” I heard someone say. However, I was too focused on Chris trying to run away, Cynthia, Colena, and I all blasted the sand that Chris and his bug was on. We see him fall closer towards us and he kind of disapperrres under the sand. “Huh, at least he can’t escape now,” I shrugged I turned my head back to see that the second tongue came closer to us and slammed on the deck of the ship. “Oh great.” another voice sighed as we fell even closer towards the hole. The ship lurches forwards and then backwards while Lady Tyrande eyes

focus and jaw determines her hand glowing as she leaps off the boat right next to the tongue and slices the tongue. The whole worm squeals and the tongue sliters back in its mouth The first tongue slams onto the boat as the second slithers back. Colena, Cynthia and I run also towards the tongue. Our hands glow blue just like Tyrande but when we slap the tongue nothing happens. All three of our hands are just stuck there and when we all try to pull it away, nothing happens. The ship moves forward closer once again with the tongue still stuck there. We all fire once again, I shoot bolts of lignting towards the mouth of the worm but surprisingly all of our spells bounce off the tongue and lands on the ship The boat catches fire and I try to yank my hand off once again.I managed to get my palm free but my fingers are still stuck, Colena and Cynthia both try but their palm is still really stuck.

The tongue starts to go back in its mouth leaving me, Colena and Cynthia all dangling. My palms start to slip so I reach for the tongue with my other hand. I looked down to see Lady Tyrande, she looked confused for a second and I couldn’t blame her, but then she focused again. The glow from her hand spreads across her whole entire body and she starts gaining strength from the glow.

I then see Chris standing and the mouth of the worm. How the heck did he get there I thought. “You guys should repair.” Chris suggested looking at the burning boat.

“SHUT UP TRAITOR” Colena spat. Everyone on the ship throws magic at the tongue which finally collapses and releases us. The ship then moves forwards again the worm shudders making everyone shake as 4 piercing teeth come out. Colena and I fired at the teeth farest from Chris. The ground under Chris explode again and I realize that was Cynthia “It's a casam, traitor, coward” she said. We glance at Tyrande and she is still gaining power.

The ship lurches left, finishing the fire. I then hear Tyrande’s voice in my head “Get on the ship, if you can. I worry for those who are on foot,” Everyone on the ship blasts magic at one of the teeth closest to them The worm squeals again as the teeth fracture probably as it has never experienced this much pain in its life. More sand goes in and the casam grows. I see the hole centimeters from my feet. “CANNONBALL!” I scream and jump in As soon as I enter, I feel heat, like a moist type of heat, and it also smells like dog breath.

I fall and fall until I land on a very sharp rocky platform. It feels like I landed on a tooth, I put my hand to stabilize myself and jerk it away immediately as it is razor sharp

I look down to see a neverending pitch of darkness I look up to see just a little last glimpse of daylight, Lady Tyrande levitating and Colena just by the mouth. Bits of wood starts to fall in and the mouth starts to close Then all of a sudden, everything gets darker and it apperes the wood that was falling made itself into the floor .I look at the darkness for a while until I see a friendly face who I realize is my pet Floumph. “Wooooooooooo!” he smiles at me then turns around the place and goes “Wooouhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?” “I know,” I told him. Again, the voice of Tyrande fills my head again “Hang on.”

Then the floor moves and Tyrande floats down. She passes me, glances at me and winks before floating another 20 feet down her glow illuminating the place and with almost no effort she yanks out a tooth, and then another. The worms insides start to spin I was about to ask when I feel myself launching upwards out of the mouth and into the sky I see the rest of my classmates also airborn. I big goofy grin spreads on my lips after seeing Chris as a potted plant Assuming he failed a spell, I braced my body for the impact of hitting the ground After I land, I see a sky blue glow explode out of the mouth of the worm. It screams in pain and tries to gag the thing that was causing it pain out. Another burst of white light follows and Lady Tyrande levitates out. She blasts the worm and it buries itself into the sand, however, only for a second as it comes back out glaring at Tyrande who was glaring back, and somehow, I felt like I could sense her anger

Behold . . . The Epik Worm & Lady Tyrande Staredown

As we were inside the worm’s mouth we came out, with a boat. As we were on the boat, we started steering towards a chasm. Then all of a sudden someone jumped out of the boat and everyone started calling him a traitor. After that, we started basting magic every randomly into the desert. As we steered into the chasm and a tongue suck into the boat and pulled us in. All of a sudden my vision blackout and I fainted. then my body was moving independently, but my eyes were coles so no one would notice.

I am a merchant and I own a sand skipper. It's pulled by big disgusting millipedes.

The reason I use a sand skipper is that there are big giant worms that hunt by vibration. If I rode a horse, the colossal worms might eat me. The story opens when I was hired by lady Tyrondae, a person I knew because I once studied under her about fifteen years ago. She used to be an ambassador for a place called Icelandia but she has been a teacher for a magic school, the one I went to, for the last hundred years.

First I did not believe she was here but she could prove to me that she was indeed who she said she was through magical communication. So I was excited to see her again and her class of students I gathered was somewhat dangerous because she needed help. I was guiding my ship to the rendezvous point when I saw some figures in the distance. I gathered that they are the people I am looking for. A fiery explosion shocked the earth and as the smoke cleared I could see the figures picking themselves up so I continued to them. As I got closer I got even more worried because I could see the signs of one of those giant worms I didn’t see it but I could see maybe yesterday it attacked something but worms have a migratory pattern they move at a particular angle so it most likely would have left well, that explosion was gigantic though so it might have come back. I recognized lady Tyrondae by her distinctive light blue skin. I could see another dozen students, a few of them worn out, some of them badly injured, then I realized none of them were moving and lady Tyrondae was signaling for me to get over here, so I went over there. Slowly and steadily, everyone started to climb aboard the side of my ship. I'm aware that if they made too many steps on the ground a worm could come up and eat them alive. A student slipped dangling dangerously close to the sand and another one also slipped and I watched as a girl, Grace, fell past the ship until a person, using magic blasts her, rather violently onto the ship. I understand that she only did that because that would attract the worm but the impact causes the other boy to fall off the ship and impacts the sand. I watch as a hole opens up in the ground and a gigantic worm rises from the deep, Lady Tyrondae jumps effortlessly onto the ship and says “ Maxwell, I’m glad you’re here.” Then suddenly everyone started to fire the ship's cannonballs at the worm. Another surprise happens, a student, Chris grabs one of the millipedes and rides away then an unforeseen cannonball comes out of the ship again and hits the ground under Chris and he falls but I am sensing he is still alive. Three of the students suddenly fire a blast of magic at the worm and it does nothing, then the worm sucks the students in and makes their hand stuck on the worm’s tongue. The worm tries to eat everyone else but everyone ducks and the worm misses everyone and in retaliation, everyone fires magic at the worm the try and free the three students but the magic bounces of the tongue and hits the deck of the ship and it lights on fire and in the confusion the three students manage to get free from the worm and jumps onto the ground. Then, someone steers the ship left as if they were trying to go into the chasm where the worm was and the heaving winds extinguishes the fire on the ship then a blast of destruction magic hits the worm and it disappears and it turns out the lady Tyrondae had been charging up a spell.

WHile on the boat, there was a hole emerging from the sand and rocks were tumbling and soon it had gotten bigger and bigger so we decided to see what iit was so we went closer and it was just a giant hole that got bigger and since it looked very dangerous and scary chris decided to run away and flee the situation while we had to deal with it.THen, a huge pink looking tentacle came out of the hole and started to attack us missing alot. After that four sharp teeth appears and we barely can escape but we slide into the hole and fall.Then, the sand worm emerges and goes after lady tyrande which actually defends it pretty well.

Class 7 We started to steer the ship in different directions (forward, right, left, backwards), and we also started to fire magic at the giant worm creature. It looked like we were steering in the direction of the worm’s mouth. Chris (the traitor) jumped on a sand bug and he tried to fly away. Some of my classmates were stuck in the worm’s mouth and I think they seemed to enjoy it. Lady Tyrande was being pretty helpful as well.

Colena Shan

Date: January 6, 3082 Oh God. So we’re basically in this Giant Worm’s mouth, and Rachael’s saying that it’s quite illogical—after all, worms don’t have teeth, right? But I’m gonna call it a Worm, because Tyrande said it is, and no matter how stubborn and strict and dumb she is, I do think she knows what this thing is.

We’re also on this guy named Maxwell’s ship, and we’re somehow able to “steer” it around the inside of the mouth. Tyrande introduced Maxwell to us while we were falling onto the tongue—he apparently was a student at M Litterae Est Magicae fifteen years previously and he’s been a merchant ever since.

Back to the Worm thing. There’s a large chasm in the center. We assume that beyond the chasm is something dangerous and going down there is a guaranteed death, but Angela and I are keen to go down there. One of the first years—Cynthia—who doesn’t seem to have a love of her own life, looks excited too.

Meanwhile, Chris, who fears death and exciting adventure so much, is screaming at us to go back as I steer the ship left, towards the chasm. Tyrande tells us we should probably vote on what we should do, and as Chris is trying to persuade everyone to go right and backwards, he is also trying—but failing—to prevent us from going left.

Most of us vote left, much to Chris’s indignation, and we also voted to attack random directions.Bright flashes of light flew in different directions. Chris was now screaming like an idiot. Breh.

I steered the ship forward, closer to the chasm, screaming, “FIRE!” as we all blasted a bunch of spells around. I think we did it pretty successfully, but we were far from killing the Worm and getting out. Chris managed to get some people to drag the ship backwards, dragging us further away from the hole. The poor millipedes that were pulling the ship must be in a lot of pain right now.

As Chris was steering the ship backwards, a long, writhing tongue (which Rachael told us was called a prostomium) came out of the chasm thingy. We fired more magic stuff at it, making it recoil, and we started to hope it was afraid.

Chris screamed, “I’ve had enough of you dumb people!” and waved his hands, leapt from the boat, and landed on something he created using Alteration Magic.

“TRAITOR!” some of us screamed, but I continued driving the ship into the chasm in the center. Cynthia blasted some magic near Chris, making him lose his grip on whatever he was using to get the f— out of this place and slipping back towards us.

A second tongue appeared, smacking the ship hard. Angela, Cynthia and I somehow fell off of the ship, and got our right hands glued to the tongue. Angela almost managed to get her hand unstuck, but then she put her other hand on the tongue. Cynthia and I both tried to drag our hands off the tongue, failing miserably. The tongue dragged us off the bottom—ground—or whatever of the mouth, lifting us into the air.

Tyrande had this face that said “WTF DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” as she glared at us. She started to glow brightly, ignoring Cynthia’s question about why she was glowing.

The tongue that Cynthia, Angela and I were stuck to was hit by 7 different spells—Rachael, the Justins, Jerick, Grace, Haolin, and Michael’s. The tongue let us go, collapsing on top of us. We managed to get the tongue off of us, spluttering and coughing.

The chasm was growing now. The Aurojackson and Lady Tyrande were at the very edge. Chris did something to elevate himself further away from it, just as four, dark shapes appeared—surrounding us.

At first, I thought they were pyramids. Then I realized they were the worm’s teeth. I shot a spell at the one furthest from Chris—the last thing I wanted was the traitor to be safe from danger—aided by Angela and Cynthia, and together, we managed to wreck the first tooth.

Cynthia looked pretty scary in her rage, blasting Chris’s sand pillar, as she yelled, “YOU COWARD!” and, encouraged by Angela and I, continued screaming about traitors and cowards, and how she was gonna get revenge.

“I’M TRYING NOT TO DIE LIKE YOU IDIOTS ARE!” Chris bellowed as he hung on for dear life, though his grip was slipping.

“IT’S BETTER TO DIE A HERO THAN LIVE A COWARD!” I screamed back. (I asked many people irl, and they all agree with me.)

“YEAH!” Cynthia shouted. She proceeded to say a bunch of words that I shall not put down here—cause we don’t want you learning them.

Lady Tyrande had still yet to move. She was glowing really bright by now, like a small, blue sun.

The bottom—or ground—or whatever continued to shake, causing a few people on the Aurojackson to lose balance and stumble. The mouth was closing, and Chris had halted in his attempt to get out of the mouth, glancing at the closing mouth.

Rejoin the ship, Tyrande’s voice echoed in my head. I hated this “talk in your head” thing, because it reminded me only too well of the gigantic flower/Venus Flytrap we met in the Black Forest.

I blasted more magic at the tooth closest to ship and also second furthest from Chris. “GO ONTO ETHEREAL!” I shouted at Rachael, not sure if she heard over the rumbling and the shaking of the Worm thing.

Cynthia suddenly sprouted dark, black wings, wincing, probably because it was painful.

Angela slipped on the sand, being dragged towards the chasm in the center. I scrambled up, but I slipped as well and fell.

The boat also tipped into the chasm, the people on it screaming, as fireballs flew everywhere, rebounded, and completely wrecked the ship. Chris attempted to do something to get the hell out of here, and ended up turning into a potted plant (Rachael will tell you its species and stuff), which was quite funny, and he too, fell into the chasm.

There was a flash of light as bright as the sun, and I heard Lady Tyrande’s voice again, Hold on.

*******

I saw Tyrande pluck out the two remaining teeth of the worm, causing it to shake even more, though since I was falling already into a chasm I doubt it matters. She continued to attack it, descending deeper into the worm……

The next thing I knew, we were falling.

We are getting chased by a sand worm and after many bad decisions I jump off the ship and there are millipedes so I use alteration magic to make a sand version of it. Cynthea tries to blast me off of it as I am at the edge of the “Death Pit” as I call it but I don’t die or anything which is good, I made a piranha plant thing and went underground.

The piranha plant could not bite through the tough, black leathery skin so I made it pop out and I just sat at the top of the lip, It was very high so I had to raise the sand up after like raising 80% of the way I jumped and turned into a flower pot.

I had no fear because I was a flower pot and just as I was about to hit the ground I turned into me again and my thoughts were, OH MY GOD I am getting a broken spine or something and I am so dead.

SESSION EIGHT

The Fall

As I woke up I was falling, and so was everyone in the class. As we fell I took out my shield and glided down to the ground. I was also able to grab someone else. And I grabbed Justin. As we glid down to the ground, we went back to the school. After another night at the school, I eat breakfast and also convinced a Jerry to get a toolsmith to speed up to the building my of weapon. The rest of the day went as useal, except that we went to the place the dead people were and came back.

Rachael January 7, 3802 I’m fairly sure another night passed, so I’m going to write this like it did. Then Tyrande went missing (did I mention that) and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be long before Festo did too. Festo, of course, was oblivious to any danger of their positions, and was his usual cheerful self with about a dozen of illusions of him walking around the Illusion table - which made it frustrating and incredibly hard to tell what Festo himself actually looked like or whether we had actually seen him ever at all.

As usual, Colena, Angela, and I were stationed with the first-years, and I wondered what Argon was doing with all the Upper years and why we just had to miss out on that. And then Festo gave us a pep talk. Which I ABSOLUTELY did not need. So for the second time, we stepped on the elevator for another lecture - and glanced a foreboding look at Gil’s floor as we passed it.

Since the obviously rude thing to do was to barge in, we knocked, though from my point of view, Colena, being Colena, looked tempted to knock it down and cross her fingers for it to end up smashing into the real Festo’s face.

“Come in! Come in!” he called out in his usual unnaturally merry voice. He started as soon as we stepped into the threshold, and I tried to ignore the numerous amount of Festos floating around.

“So today,” he said, launching into a boring lecture (*yawn* Well no it actually wasn’t boring, but it was more boring compared to watching the illusions comb beards), “So today, we’ve got two business to attend to. Um, and unfortunately they both fall to us. As you know, Tyrande has left for our trepid search for Professor Gil. I don’t anticipate this taking her more than a day, but it’s fallen to me to not only accomplish my own goal today, but also hers.

“So we’ve got two things we need to do: First and foremost” -here he sighed rather loudly“we’re going to need some money. You see, we negotiated with the palace and with the city, who allowed us to stay, but it would appear that several of our students went on a rather expensive shopping extravaganza and the money that we’re generally able to create with magic has been rejected. So we’re on the hook for rather a lot of cash. But it’s okay-” “Can’t we just use magic to make them,” Colena interjected, clearly having not been listening to this conversation.

“No no no, that’s what didn’t work. We thought they would take magic funds, and they-” Festo shrugged his shoulders.

“If we can’t use magic to make money,” Colena pointed out, “How else are we supposed to make money? Get a job?”

Then he began rattling off stuff. “There are five major characteristics of currency: scarcity, fundability - that’s not going to help this session. What you need to know is that they need money that is real. Like, not the stuff that we’ve been making and passing on lately.”

“Oh, so you guys make fake money,” Colena said with a disapproving tap of her foot.

“Fake money, yes. That is the legal term with which I am being charged. So, uh, I need to get some real money. And I’ve got a way for that, but unfortunately I have to look after the first years. So, we will arrange a field trip for the second half of this day to go to a gaming house to play some games!”

I looked at him with dissent. Festo decidedly did not notice.

“While we’re there, you will watch the first years, who will be playing games, and I will earn some money!” he exclaimed, sounding very excited.

“Uh, Festo, is there anything we should know about this arcade thing?” Colena asked.

“Pfft, I don’t know, but it sounds awesome. Have a good time!”

“What games are there?”

“I have no idea.”

“What makes you think it’s so awesome then?”

“There’s the one where you shoot each other and dance the whole time with costumes?”

“I hate dancing and I hate costumes and I hate shooting.”

“I never said you had to play a game, you just had to chaperone the first years!”

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?”

Festo continued to rattle off about games.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” Colena repeated.

Her inquiry was ignored. She tried to say something else, but it was drowned out by Festo carrying on to list off every game he knew.

“Can. You. Please. Not,” Colena said through gritted teeth. She was still ignored, until she said, “I have a question.”

“Yes?” Festo said, snapping out of his trance.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” Colena said for yet a third time.

“Just a second,” he replied, then lowered his voice to a whisper to address Angela and I. “I don’t actually want you to chaperone. I’m going to play games, and you’re going to help me cheat at cards,” he whispered.

“What kind of games are you going to play?” Colena said, not realizing that Festo had dodged the question, and clearly having heard Festo’s whisper “Oh, uh, probably Poker.”

“Festo, can’t you just use an illusion and use them to spy on the others?”

“Because I can’t teach the first years to cheat as I am about to do.”

Then Colena started raging for a moment before Festo calmed her down and said, “But we’ve got more important things to do in the first half of this day. Tyrande left this.” He reached down and plopped in front of us a nondescript, rather ruffled brown bag.

I immediately recognized it, and started violently before calming myself. I didn’t know the name, of course, but when I had gone into Rengar’s tomb, this was the bag that was displayed there with illusions, along with an orb, the Amulet of Rengar, and what was probably the Staff of Primar - which, by the way, was missing as it had last been in the possession of Professor Gilmor.

These four objects that were in the ownership of the supposedly late Rengar had not been found at the time of burial, and therefore only illusionary projections of them in the marble building that served as a grave could salvage for the real objects. We had found the amulet - then lost it to Gustav at the same time that Marysa disappeared. The Staff of Primar had become the Paragon of Primar, and had last been seen as Gil’s property due to his status as Protector Of Primar or something like that. The orb and the bag had been missing - which had then been whittled down to only the orb. For right in front of me, at that moment, was what was known as the Bag of Torments.

The history behind these objects that Rengar had had in his possession was largely unknown, and right now, as I write this, there are still mysteries being uncovered. The Bag of Torments received its infamous name from the fact that it was used to give out things by Rengar. These gifts quickly turned out to give the receiver bad luck, or had some gruesome results, and so the bag that it was drawn from which seemed to have an infinite amount of space - came by this name.

Okay, I’ll stop lecturing about boring things.

Colena, being Colena, and being curious (not saying that that’s a bad thing), instantly reached for the opening of the bag, with the intention of opening it and drawing something out.

“Don’t!” Festo immediately shouted, and Colena’s hands shot back to where they were before.

“Why can’t I open it?”

“I don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to figure out! Tyrande pulled this from the stomach of the worm.”

“That’s disgusting,” I muttered. Colena, still being Colena, and not heeding to Festo’s warning, still extended a hand as discreetly as possible - which, considering that this is Colena we’re talking about here, is as conspicuously as possible. Festo noticed, and slapped her wrist, and she winced before pulling her hand back. Colena still stared hungrily at the bag.

“If you’re not going to let me open it,” she snapped, “then what’s the point of having it?”

Festo said something about illusion spells, snapping his fingers and making a pair of spectacles appear, looking very ridiculous on him. Colena asked to try them on, and looked at the whole room through them, clearly fascinated by it.

“Does this sense body heat?” Colena asked.

“No, it measures elate, wild magic that has been gathered around an individual or an object. As you can see, it’s registering what he did on this bag. So no, you’re not going to open it here. Dangerous magic outside the tower makes sense. We are literally standing in a pocket dimension - a place that exists between space. And if something should disrupt it - like a large magical explosion - it could collapse! Do you know what happens when a space between space collapses while you’re inside of it?”

“Well that’s something that I haven’t experienced,” I muttered.

“Um, you die?” Colena said.

“Probably. Nobody’s gotten out of one that collapsed.”

“Okay, let me try,” Colena offered.

“Definitely not. Outside the building.” He took the bag and handed it to Angela.

And Angela, being Angela, flipped over the bag, effectively dumping out whatever it had within it. Out of the bag fell a person, which I didn’t see how it was possible, but hey, I lived in a world with giant worms and pocket dimensions, so how could anything be possible? We all recognized this person, who had died during the fight with Mr. Nasty Giant Worm.

Apparently Maxwell hadn’t breathed for a while - considering that I had been fairly certain that he was deceased, for the first thing he did was take a large gasp of air.

“Uh, hey, is this your bag?” Colena said warily.

We did some research - and Maxwell assured us that it was NOT his bag. First, we flipped the bag over again, and nothing came out - thankfully, because I find it rather unsettling that someone dropped out from inside of a bag. Then we decided to open it, and ended up with a whole bunch of white light

spilling out of it. It swirled across the grass in elaborate patterns as it wrapped around Colena, then Chris, then Cynthia, and before long, it had touched everyone. It slowly spread up, towards our mouths, and I tried to not inhale it, but that was obviously not effective after like 2 seconds because I hated to hold my breath.

And then suddenly there were so many possibilities. So many endless possibilities that changed with every decision I made, every step I took, until even the smallest change had a great impact. The threads twisted and turned, as if restless, changed and flickered, disappeared and were replaced, until there were so many, and so vast a landscape that I couldn’t distinguish thread from thread.

Colena reached inside the bag. The bag was the size of your average backpack, yet her arm kept on going, far too deep to be natural. She put her head in, then the other arm, before she slid into the bag completely and disappeared from sight, leaving the ruffled bag lying at our toes. Angela then followed.

Cynthia picked up the bag after a moment, flipped it upside down, and dumped Colena and Angela from the depths.

We then assailed it repeatedly, and each attack seemed to be absorbed by the bag. We threw fireballs at it. Nothing happened. We tried to explode it. Nothing happened. So on, so forth. Chris went to the library and came back looking satisfied.

More lectures about Rengar. Apparently he absorbed most of the magic in the country (don’t ask me how that works, please, it’s going to give me a headache someday), and used it to make himself take power of the country, and so everyone had to be a peasant and bow down to him and blah blah blah.

And then he died and then magic broke, spreading all over Kahori, and became wild, which is why some of us had their hair falling out when a spell went wrong. Lecture over. Class ordered back to reading my boring narrative.

Then Cynthia went inside the bag and then somehow got out again by popping out beside it without being dumped onto the grass (which I didn’t think was a pleasant experience). She then proceeded to reach into the bag and pull something out. That something turned out to be a card. She stared at it, and I scooted over to see it. It was a comet, falling from the night sky. The card, being naughty and disobedient, disintegrated in her hand.

Colena reached into the bag and drew out another card, the illustrations on this one depicting flames. It crumbled into ash as well. Then the world darkened (which could hardly be a good sign), and a hissing sound came from the bag as the head of a serpent emerged, far too large to be held by the bag.

Then there were two arms, one at a time, almost humanoid, but covered in scales and ending in claws.

Cynthia immediately went in for the kill, and failed epically, blasting both Colena and Maxwell instead.

Wow. Cynthia then decided to hit it with fire, which made it squeal and charge forward. She rolled to the side, and it loomed over top of her. Then she hit it with a beam of light, and the thing decided that existing was tedious and decided not to.

Then Festo came and started talking about light shows with other Upper year students. And then we explained to Festo how it was Rengar’s bag, and exactly what it did.

“The Bag of Many Torments?” Festo asked, squinting at us (okay maybe I forgot that it was named “the Bag of Many Torments” and I ended up omitting the fact that it had many torments).

“Yeah,” Colena said. Then Colena drew out another card, this one of a city. As usual, it dissipated after a few seconds.

Then she did it again, and this time, the image on the card was a skull. It dissolved, per the usual standard. Then a skeleton appeared. It was clad in a thick black robe, and wielded a scythe. This abominable creature had a name - it was called the Avatar of Death. And they really couldn’t have gotten any more creative.

Cynthia, being Cynthia, dived in and attacked it. The skeleton swung its scythe, but Cynthia - who still had her flappy wings protruding from her back - took to the skies and flew up. The creature duplicated, and now there was a second Avatar of Death. Colena blasted it, and the skeleton tried to swing its scythe, but failed because Colena had thrown herself to the side, and had to live with it.

I blasted some magic towards the one attacking Colena, which looked worn out, and a fresh new monstrosity sprang out just as Cynthia’s skeleton lifted into the air and Colena’s skeleton died from some destruction magic. Then Festo started betting on my life, which I did not appreciate. I ducked and shielded myself as the scythe sprang to life, hacking the place that my chest had been had I not moved.

Colena streaked up a tree. The skeleton bounced off my shield, and my face twisted into a smirk as it died.

Since I got bored, I decided to summon another Avatar of Death, disintegrating the one that was currently attacking Colena in the process. I shot the one that had spawned with more fire, which singed it, and then I tried to do it again, failed, and nothing happened except I saw one more thing in the room.

An orb floated about twelve metres above me. It was clearly a spying device, and I had a vague feeling I knew whoever was watching. I laughed softly, looked up at it again, and said, “Well, hello, spy.”

Then there were a whole bunch of what-are-you-talking-abouts and where-is-the-spys and how-the-heck-did-you-know-that-there-was-a-spys and what-was-thats and a lot of other odd questions.

There were also a couple of oh-my-god-there’s-a-spys and some AHHHHH-WE’RE-BEING-SPIED-ONs and a lot of cursing.

As soon as I uttered the phrase the orb disappeared. Everyone started panicking, which made me think that saying it was a mistake.

Moving on…

And then we had to go to a casino of all places, to earn money. Which triggered a whole bunch of WE’RE-UNDERAGE-AND-YOU-HAVE-TO-BE-NINETEENs and OH-MY-GOD-GAMBLING-IS-BADs. We went anyway. I absolutely did not consent to being in the casino, so I stayed outside.

Just as Festo was coming out with a wad of cash from his games, along with most of the other students, there was a brilliant flash of light. And then my mind went from moderate panic mode to extreme panic mode because I just saw a spy and now there was a light that was similar to that of the amulet. Then there was Colena, who was being held by the scruff of her neck by a beefy man who looked like a Minotaur - you know, that Greek thing from you Earthians over there. As Colena struggled and cast magic towards it, and with a grunt from the Minotaur (I’ve just decided to call him that), the magic was absorbed by his vest. He grinned gleefully, and dropped Colena, before a voice interfered - a voice that I had heard before, but wasn’t particularly familiar with, though from his tone it sounded like he harboured a gleeful hatred.

“Uh, not so fast! I think we should examine this new development,” said the Grand Vizier. But my head still spun around and around, because the edge in his voice sounded familiar yet not familiar,

clearly telling the truth but hiding something. The Vizier walked forward. He was smiling, too, a smile that was cold and calculating and that flickered with displeasure on Festo.

“We have reasons to believe you have not been completely honest-” the Vizier started.

“Fair?” Colena interrupted.

“Correct, yes. I would say not completely fair. Is that an accurate statement, little girl? I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask all of you to consent to an enforced investigation.”

“Go ahead,” Colena said.

“Quite glad to,” the Grand Vizier said.

Colena was disregarding the fact that I was staring at her with an expression that said, What are you doing?

I was starting to be dragged into the hole and while i was falling i tried to make a big spider web and catch myself but it failed then i felt the world twirling and twisting and i was in a grass field and saw a big cute creature so i start running at it and running but right when i can greet it i went out of the dream and slammed onto the ground and i feel my soul leaving my body

Class 8 I was falling in the air and I decided to go to the floating platform. So I tried to move over to the platform, and I made it on. Then, I saw Cynthia dropping Chris after he became a person again. I also saw some other people trying to save themselves. When the floating platform landed, I got off and helped Jerick. Even though I didn’t know a lot about medical stuff, I got him to be stable. Then, I saw some of my classmates send messages that we need help except for Chris.

Maxwell is yelling something and then gets eaten by the worm great that’s something cool. And then Chris is now no longer a plant great I drop him and he takes max damage YES mission complete kill Chirs. Then I watched as tons of other people fall while I’m flying and now most people are dead. Eventually we watch miss Tryande fighting the worm and we kill it kinda, then we attempt to send a message to the school I turned into a 5 year old and then I turned back into a 9 year old we use our SUPER GOOD HEALING THINGYS to heal people and I meet this guy called festo we go back to the school.

Bye

Colena Shan

Date: January 7, 3082 Location: Just outside of Orrinshire I didn’t even get to fall peacefully, because Rachael started telling us about the physics of falling or whatever the hell it’s called. As I was falling (I don’t think I mentioned I went on Ethereal, but I did) on the Ethereal Plane, I got the very logical idea that I should make something to stop my fall, or make it less painful. I flicked my hands, hoping to make a small mountain of sand to land on, but I failed. When was I going to get a successful spell this year—other than the time I turned invisible and the time I’d doused myself with water?

I found myself in something that looked just like the Astral Plane. But there was something weird going on. If you touch the waters of the Astral Plane (which, by the way, looks just like the water in the ruby of the dagger and the stuff in the amulet), you basically die I guess. I was treading water, so if I was in Astral, I’d be dead, and yet something told me I was still alive. Therefore, I was not in Astral.

A small prison/castle thing stood a distance away. I attempted to swim towards it. At the rate I was going, I figured as I kicked, it was gonna take me 3 days to reach there.

50 seconds after that, I found myself exactly where I was before I went into that odd place, except no longer on Ethereal. To my relief, after I flicked my hands, a mountain of sand appeared, and I landed neatly onto it. I glanced around. Tyrande was doing some epic battle moves against the Worm thing, the Justins were beside each other, looking relieved, Cynthia was flying and carrying Chris the Cactus, and Grace was sitting on a wooden platform. Everyone on the ground looked really bad. Injuries, first from Cynthia’s fireball blasts, and now from the painful fall. Except for Haolin, who had a ripped sleeve, but otherwise looking unharmed from anything except for the fireball.

Angela was holding onto a floumph, and when she was 10 feet off the ground, she let go, landing neatly. I looked at Rachael, who was bleeding and unconscious, having landed in a tiny pool of water she just created.

Jerick was speaking at the ground, so I assumed he’d gotten the Confusion Side Effect. Michael appeared out of nowhere, presumably having gotten the Invisibility Side Effect.

Chris the Cactus turned into Chris the Traitor again, and Cynthia dropped him straightaway. Chris must have been expecting this, since he stumbled, but managed to land on his feet without much difficulty, glaring at Cynthia.

Tyrande was doing well with the Worm, so I thought I should help heal people first. I approached Michael, flicking my hands and muttered a couple of Latin words that were related to healing, like “heal”, “revive” , “help” and “aid”. He managed to get to his feet, wincing.

The Justins, who had been watching, slightly amused, at everyone’s injuries, headed over to Rachael and Angela. Leaving the conscious ones to tend to the unconscious ones, I waved my hands, creating a ball of magic that hit the worm, cutting its neck open.

The injuries were worse than I expected when I turned my head back towards the bodies on the ground, or maybe it was because the first years sucked at healing. I sent a message to the school, with an Illusionary Falcon.

I tipped my head and whispered in its ear, Hello, whoever receives this. This is second year Colena speaking. We are in need of medical assistance. All of us, lying on the ground. Except for Chris though, he’s faking his injuries and stuff. Please come as soon as possible, a few of us are close to death.

My falcon sped off, but I knew it would be some time before it reached the school. I had added that Chris was faking his injuries because he was a traitor, no matter what, and I don’t like it when a traitor gets healed.

Festo finally arrived half an hour later, and said, “Ah yes…I got your message. Who killed the Worm?”

“I did,” I replied. “But Tyrande attacked it as well.”

“Ah yes, good job Colena,” said Festo, and I was sure he thought I was lying. “Why has nobody tried to help this boy?” he added, pointing at Chris.

“He’s faking his injuries!” Cynthia and I said together, indignant.

Festo walked over to Chris, healing him, as more of his illusion Festo’s arrived. One of them went to help Tyrande, who was looking exhausted.

“Where’s Rachael?” Tyrande asked me and Cynthia, as she stumbled towards us, supported by Festo.

“Your favourite student is there,” I responded, pointing at the shallow pool of water where Rachael and Angela were.

“Right…Rachael’s my favourite student…no…sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Tyrande closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear it.

“It’s okay, it’s kind of obvious anyways,” I said.

Lady Tyrande limped away, and I saw her fly, carrying Rachael, back to the school. Festo and Illusion Festo took Chris and Jerick, who was no longer confused.

“Did they just leave us?” Cynthia hissed, lowering herself onto the ground, but her wings did not go away.

“No, don’t worry, you’ll be safe with me!” called a Festo right behind us.

“Should we stay here, or get out of here?” I asked.

“Oh, we definitely shouldn’t stay here,” said the Illusion Festo happily.

Not wanting to stay with Festo, I cast him an irritable look and went on Ethereal.

******* I returned to the castle an hour later, just in time to see Chris come to in his cot, surrounded by the first years and Angela. Argon sat nearby, muttering under his breath. A few of the students fidgeted a little, but Festo and Tyrande told them to be quiet. I hissed a few swearwords, then marched upstairs, with the intention of checking the secret brick in Gil’s office. Cynthia shifted a little, it seemed as

if she wanted to follow me, but Tyrande stopped her. Looking frustrated, Cynthia watched me get onto the Elevator and go to Gil’s floor.

The door to his office was locked, and it took me ten minutes to pick it, making loud crashing and banging noises as I did so. I honestly didn’t care if anyone came up and asked me what I was doing, I just hoped I didn’t break Argon’s concentration.

I slipped inside, shutting the door behind me. I inspected a few stuff on his desk, which I realized were objects from Orrinshire.

An orange brick on his wall looked slightly different from others. It glowed very faintly. I took the brick out and right away I knew I’d gotten the right one.

“Yes…” I whispered softly. There was a small space there. I reached inside of it, and my hands closed around something. I took it out and gasped.

The Amulet! I put it around my neck, and had a look. Marysa was inside! She saw me, and I saw a faint flicker of hope cross her face. Beside Marysa, I saw something else, but it was difficult to see. It wasn’t the skeleton of Rengar—I was sure of it, though. I tucked the amulet out of sight beneath my shirt and went back to my room, noticing Jerick get up from his cot, looking tired, but otherwise okay.

Date: January 8, 3082 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae Next morning, it was the usual. Quick breakfast, and Festo informed the first years that they would have a relaxing class for once, with no dangers and the like. He also invited me to have a look, so I took the Side Effects notebook out of my bag, watching the first years create animals for fun.

Grace’s failure was, perhaps, the most exciting thing that happened during that relatively short and cheerful class. She got the Side Effect that Kylie once got—set everything you touch on fire for a minute. A young boy, who was selling lemonade, appeared, and after I paid for a glass (using Gilder that I had for some unknown reason), Grace took a cup as well and set that thing on fire,

causing the boy to yell out in shock. Festo giggled, and the boy accidentally knocked over a bowl filled with ice cubes (he was charging extra for the ice—5 Gilder per cube) which somehow burst aflame, which is pretty illogical but magic is weird in its own way. Festo was laughing, and Grace was muttering apologies to the boy, who wasted his entire jug of water failing to put the fire out.

He demanded that we pay him for his stand, just when the fire vanished abruptly, leaving the lemonade stand unharmed.

Lmao.

Festo brought the first years back inside for Lunch, while I marched over to where Rachael and Argon were, planning to tell them about the Amulet.

As I am falling I see Maxwell about to do some magic spell but gets eaten by the big wyrm and dies, F in the chat I thought. As I was falling as a flower pot Cynthia grabbed me out of the air, nice, I thought, oh boy was I wrong. As soon as I turned into a human again Cynthia DROPPED me from 100 feet in the air and I tried to grab onto her foot but the sheer amount of surprise from the situation.

All I remember was a sharp pain filling my body and a EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sound. My eyes were almost closed with only a small bit to see the world. The first thing I thought of was “WHERE IS MY WEAPON, THAT BLACKSMITH BETTER FINISH IT OR I AM SUING EVEN IF I AM DIED”.

After like 2 minutes of pain I saw this like bootleg santa guy and Colena said that every body needed help EXCEPT ME like ok you're going to lie RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE WHILE I AM DYING WHILE THE THIS BOOTLEG SANTA IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER WHO I ASSUME IS THE TEACHER OF ILLUSION. Luckily when god was creating Colena and Cynthea he forgot to add charisma to them so this bootleg santa didn’t believe them and gave me some medical assistance. We were in everyone but Colena was on this floating platform and got us all back to the school.

I was on a boat in this weird lake or something and there was this lantern that was glowing so I just looked at it until I decided to touch it and woke up! After breakfast we had Illusion class with the bootleg Santa guy whose name is Festo, we went to the oasis and just relaxed.

I was trying to make a big tree but instead butterflies started flying out and Festo said I passed! I thought “oh my god I just scammed the teacher”.

SESSION NINE

The Bag of Many Torments

Rachael January 7, 3802 ’m fairly sure another night passed, so I’m going to write this like it did. Then Tyrande went missing (did I mention that) and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be long before Festo did too. Festo, of course, was oblivious to any danger of their positions, and was his usual cheerful self with about a dozen of illusions of him walking around the Illusion table - which made it frustrating and incredibly hard to tell what Festo himself actually looked like or whether we had actually seen him ever at all.

As usual, Colena, Angela, and I were stationed with the first-years, and I wondered what Argon was doing with all the Upper years and why we just had to miss out on that. And then Festo gave us a pep talk. Which I ABSOLUTELY did not need. So for the second time, we stepped on the elevator for another lecture - and glanced a foreboding look at Gil’s floor as we passed it.

Since the obviously rude thing to do was to barge in, we knocked, though from my point of view, Colena, being Colena, looked tempted to knock it down and cross her fingers for it to end up smashing into the real Festo’s face.

“Come in! Come in!” he called out in his usual unnaturally merry voice. He started as soon as we stepped into the threshold, and I tried to ignore the numerous amount of Festos floating around.

“So today,” he said, launching into a boring lecture (*yawn* Well no it actually wasn’t boring, but it was more boring compared to watching the illusions comb beards), “So today, we’ve got two business to attend to. Um, and unfortunately they both fall to us. As you know, Tyrande has left for our trepid search for Professor Gil. I don’t anticipate this taking her more than a day, but it’s fallen to me to not only accomplish my own goal today, but also hers.

“So we’ve got two things we need to do: First and foremost” -here he sighed rather loudly“we’re going to need some money. You see, we negotiated with the palace and with the city, who allowed us to stay, but it would appear that several of our students went on a rather expensive shopping extravaganza and the money that we’re generally able to create with magic has been rejected. So we’re on the hook for rather a lot of cash. But it’s okay-” “Can’t we just use magic to make them,” Colena interjected, clearly having not been listening to this conversation.

“No no no, that’s what didn’t work. We thought they would take magic funds, and they-” Festo shrugged his shoulders.

“If we can’t use magic to make money,” Colena pointed out, “How else are we supposed to make money? Get a job?”

Then he began rattling off stuff. “There are five major characteristics of currency: scarcity, fundability - that’s not going to help this session. What you need to know is that they need money that is real. Like, not the stuff that we’ve been making and passing on lately.”

“Oh, so you guys make fake money,” Colena said with a disapproving tap of her foot.

“Fake money, yes. That is the legal term with which I am being charged. So, uh, I need to get some real money. And I’ve got a way for that, but unfortunately I have to look after the first years. So, we will arrange a field trip for the second half of this day to go to a gaming house to play some games!”

I looked at him with dissent. Festo decidedly did not notice.

“While we’re there, you will watch the first years, who will be playing games, and I will earn some money!” he exclaimed, sounding very excited.

“Uh, Festo, is there anything we should know about this arcade thing?” Colena asked.

“Pfft, I don’t know, but it sounds awesome. Have a good time!”

“What games are there?”

“I have no idea.”

“What makes you think it’s so awesome then?”

“There’s the one where you shoot each other and dance the whole time with costumes?”

“I hate dancing and I hate costumes and I hate shooting.”

“I never said you had to play a game, you just had to chaperone the first years!”

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?”

Festo continued to rattle off about games.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” Colena repeated.

Her inquiry was ignored. She tried to say something else, but it was drowned out by Festo carrying on to list off every game he knew.

“Can. You. Please. Not,” Colena said through gritted teeth. She was still ignored, until she said, “I have a question.”

“Yes?” Festo said, snapping out of his trance.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” Colena said for yet a third time.

“Just a second,” he replied, then lowered his voice to a whisper to address Angela and I. “I don’t actually want you to chaperone. I’m going to play games, and you’re going to help me cheat at cards,” he whispered.

“What kind of games are you going to play?” Colena said, not realizing that Festo had dodged the question, and clearly having heard Festo’s whisper “Oh, uh, probably Poker.”

“Festo, can’t you just use an illusion and use them to spy on the others?”

“Because I can’t teach the first years to cheat as I am about to do.”

Then Colena started raging for a moment before Festo calmed her down and said, “But we’ve got more important things to do in the first half of this day. Tyrande left this.” He reached down and plopped in front of us a nondescript, rather ruffled brown bag.

I immediately recognized it, and started violently before calming myself. I didn’t know the name, of course, but when I had gone into Rengar’s tomb, this was the bag that was displayed there with illusions, along with an orb, the Amulet of Rengar, and what was probably the Staff of Primar - which, by the way, was missing as it had last been in the possession of Professor Gilmor.

These four objects that were in the ownership of the supposedly late Rengar had not been found at the time of burial, and therefore only illusionary projections of them in the marble building that served as a grave could salvage for the real objects. We had found the amulet - then lost it to Gustav at the same time that Marysa disappeared. The Staff of Primar had become the Paragon of Primar, and had last been seen as Gil’s property due to his status as Protector Of Primar or something like that. The orb and the bag had been missing - which had then been whittled down to only the orb. For right in front of me, at that moment, was what was known as the Bag of Torments.

The history behind these objects that Rengar had had in his possession was largely unknown, and right now, as I write this, there are still mysteries being uncovered. The Bag of Torments received its infamous name from the fact that it was used to give out things by Rengar. These gifts quickly turned out to give the receiver bad luck, or had some gruesome results, and so the bag that it was drawn from which seemed to have an infinite amount of space - came by this name.

Okay, I’ll stop lecturing about boring things.

Colena, being Colena, and being curious (not saying that that’s a bad thing), instantly reached for the opening of the bag, with the intention of opening it and drawing something out.

“Don’t!” Festo immediately shouted, and Colena’s hands shot back to where they were before.

“Why can’t I open it?”

“I don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to figure out! Tyrande pulled this from the stomach of the worm.”

“That’s disgusting,” I muttered. Colena, still being Colena, and not heeding to Festo’s warning, still extended a hand as discreetly as possible - which, considering that this is Colena we’re talking about here, is as conspicuously as possible. Festo noticed, and slapped her wrist, and she winced before pulling her hand back. Colena still stared hungrily at the bag.

“If you’re not going to let me open it,” she snapped, “then what’s the point of having it?”

Festo said something about illusion spells, snapping his fingers and making a pair of spectacles appear, looking very ridiculous on him. Colena asked to try them on, and looked at the whole room through them, clearly fascinated by it.

“Does this sense body heat?” Colena asked.

“No, it measures elate, wild magic that has been gathered around an individual or an object. As you can see, it’s registering what he did on this bag. So no, you’re not going to open it here. Dangerous magic outside the tower makes sense. We are literally standing in a pocket dimension - a place that exists between space. And if something should disrupt it - like a large magical explosion - it could collapse! Do you know what happens when a space between space collapses while you’re inside of it?”

“Well that’s something that I haven’t experienced,” I muttered.

“Um, you die?” Colena said.

“Probably. Nobody’s gotten out of one that collapsed.”

“Okay, let me try,” Colena offered.

“Definitely not. Outside the building.” He took the bag and handed it to Angela.

And Angela, being Angela, flipped over the bag, effectively dumping out whatever it had within it. Out of the bag fell a person, which I didn’t see how it was possible, but hey, I lived in a world with giant worms and pocket dimensions, so how could anything be possible? We all recognized this person, who had died during the fight with Mr. Nasty Giant Worm.

Apparently Maxwell hadn’t breathed for a while - considering that I had been fairly certain that he was deceased, for the first thing he did was take a large gasp of air.

“Uh, hey, is this your bag?” Colena said warily.

We did some research - and Maxwell assured us that it was NOT his bag. First, we flipped the bag over again, and nothing came out - thankfully, because I find it rather unsettling that someone dropped out from inside of a bag. Then we decided to open it, and ended up with a whole bunch of white light

spilling out of it. It swirled across the grass in elaborate patterns as it wrapped around Colena, then Chris, then Cynthia, and before long, it had touched everyone. It slowly spread up, towards our mouths, and I tried to not inhale it, but that was obviously not effective after like 2 seconds because I hated to hold my breath.

And then suddenly there were so many possibilities. So many endless possibilities that changed with every decision I made, every step I took, until even the smallest change had a great impact. The threads twisted and turned, as if restless, changed and flickered, disappeared and were replaced, until there were so many, and so vast a landscape that I couldn’t distinguish thread from thread.

Colena reached inside the bag. The bag was the size of your average backpack, yet her arm kept on going, far too deep to be natural. She put her head in, then the other arm, before she slid into the bag completely and disappeared from sight, leaving the ruffled bag lying at our toes. Angela then followed.

Cynthia picked up the bag after a moment, flipped it upside down, and dumped Colena and Angela from the depths.

We then assailed it repeatedly, and each attack seemed to be absorbed by the bag. We threw fireballs at it. Nothing happened. We tried to explode it. Nothing happened. So on, so forth. Chris went to the library and came back looking satisfied.

More lectures about Rengar. Apparently he absorbed most of the magic in the country (don’t ask me how that works, please, it’s going to give me a headache someday), and used it to make himself take power of the country, and so everyone had to be a peasant and bow down to him and blah blah blah.

And then he died and then magic broke, spreading all over Kahori, and became wild, which is why some of us had their hair falling out when a spell went wrong. Lecture over. Class ordered back to reading my boring narrative.

Then Cynthia went inside the bag and then somehow got out again by popping out beside it without being dumped onto the grass (which I didn’t think was a pleasant experience). She then proceeded to reach into the bag and pull something out. That something turned out to be a card. She stared at it, and I scooted over to see it. It was a comet, falling from the night sky. The card, being naughty and disobedient, disintegrated in her hand.

Colena reached into the bag and drew out another card, the illustrations on this one depicting flames. It crumbled into ash as well. Then the world darkened (which could hardly be a good sign), and a hissing sound came from the bag as the head of a serpent emerged, far too large to be held by the bag.

Then there were two arms, one at a time, almost humanoid, but covered in scales and ending in claws.

Cynthia immediately went in for the kill, and failed epically, blasting both Colena and Maxwell instead.

Wow. Cynthia then decided to hit it with fire, which made it squeal and charge forward. She rolled to the side, and it loomed over top of her. Then she hit it with a beam of light, and the thing decided that existing was tedious and decided not to.

Then Festo came and started talking about light shows with other Upper year students. And then we explained to Festo how it was Rengar’s bag, and exactly what it did.

“The Bag of Many Torments?” Festo asked, squinting at us (okay maybe I forgot that it was named “the Bag of Many Torments” and I ended up omitting the fact that it had many torments).

“Yeah,” Colena said. Then Colena drew out another card, this one of a city. As usual, it dissipated after a few seconds.

Then she did it again, and this time, the image on the card was a skull. It dissolved, per the usual standard. Then a skeleton appeared. It was clad in a thick black robe, and wielded a scythe. This abominable creature had a name - it was called the Avatar of Death. And they really couldn’t have gotten any more creative.

Cynthia, being Cynthia, dived in and attacked it. The skeleton swung its scythe, but Cynthia - who still had her flappy wings protruding from her back - took to the skies and flew up. The creature duplicated, and now there was a second Avatar of Death. Colena blasted it, and the skeleton tried to swing its scythe, but failed because Colena had thrown herself to the side, and had to live with it.

I blasted some magic towards the one attacking Colena, which looked worn out, and a fresh new monstrosity sprang out just as Cynthia’s skeleton lifted into the air and Colena’s skeleton died from some destruction magic. Then Festo started betting on my life, which I did not appreciate. I ducked and shielded myself as the scythe sprang to life, hacking the place that my chest had been had I not moved.

Colena streaked up a tree. The skeleton bounced off my shield, and my face twisted into a smirk as it died.

Since I got bored, I decided to summon another Avatar of Death, disintegrating the one that was currently attacking Colena in the process. I shot the one that had spawned with more fire, which singed it, and then I tried to do it again, failed, and nothing happened except I saw one more thing in the room.

An orb floated about twelve metres above me. It was clearly a spying device, and I had a vague feeling I knew whoever was watching. I laughed softly, looked up at it again, and said, “Well, hello, spy.”

Then there were a whole bunch of what-are-you-talking-abouts and where-is-the-spys and how-the-heck-did-you-know-that-there-was-a-spys and what-was-thats and a lot of other odd questions.

There were also a couple of oh-my-god-there’s-a-spys and some AHHHHH-WE’RE-BEING-SPIED-ONs and a lot of cursing.

As soon as I uttered the phrase the orb disappeared. Everyone started panicking, which made me think that saying it was a mistake.

Moving on…

And then we had to go to a casino of all places, to earn money. Which triggered a whole bunch of WE’RE-UNDERAGE-AND-YOU-HAVE-TO-BE-NINETEENs and OH-MY-GOD-GAMBLING-IS-BADs. We went anyway. I absolutely did not consent to being in the casino, so I stayed outside.

Just as Festo was coming out with a wad of cash from his games, along with most of the other students, there was a brilliant flash of light. And then my mind went from moderate panic mode to extreme panic mode because I just saw a spy and now there was a light that was similar to that of the amulet. Then there was Colena, who was being held by the scruff of her neck by a beefy man who looked like a Minotaur - you know, that Greek thing from you Earthians over there. As Colena struggled and cast magic towards it, and with a grunt from the Minotaur (I’ve just decided to call him that), the magic was absorbed by his vest. He grinned gleefully, and dropped Colena, before a voice interfered - a voice that I had heard before, but wasn’t particularly familiar with, though from his tone it sounded like he harboured a gleeful hatred.

“Uh, not so fast! I think we should examine this new development,” said the Grand Vizier. But my head still spun around and around, because the edge in his voice sounded familiar yet not familiar,

clearly telling the truth but hiding something. The Vizier walked forward. He was smiling, too, a smile that was cold and calculating and that flickered with displeasure on Festo.

“We have reasons to believe you have not been completely honest-” the Vizier started.

“Fair?” Colena interrupted.

“Correct, yes. I would say not completely fair. Is that an accurate statement, little girl? I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask all of you to consent to an enforced investigation.”

“Go ahead,” Colena said.

“Quite glad to,” the Grand Vizier said with a sneer.

Colena was disregarding the fact that I was staring at her with an expression that said, What are you doing?

We make our way down to breakfast, I look to see that Guill and Tyrande’s table is empty. Argon tells us that today we will be with Sir Festo who calls me, Rachael, and Colena to his floor after breakfast. “Tyrande has left to search for Guill so we have 2 activities,” he says. He explains that we need money, “can’t we just use magic to make money?” Colena asks “We have tried, and it does not work so we have arranged a field trip to a gaming house later this afternoon, you will watch the 1 years play while I go earn some money Festo says “Why can’t the first years just go with you, they are old enough to go to a gaming house and take care of themselves?” Colena complained. “Yeah, why? Besides, we are only like 1-2 years older than them.” I agreed.

Sir Fest leaned towards as, and when he spoke, his voice 10x quieter “You are not only here to guide the first years, I will play card games and you will help me cheat!” he exclaimed.

“Why can’t you do that yourself?” “Because you have to practice your illusion magic, and I have to work on my acting skills! Now, that is for the afternoon and no arguing.” he snapped as Colena opened her mouth to start. “For the first part of the day - he takes a brown bag and puts it on the table - this was found in the mouth of the worm.”

Colena goes to open it. “No Colena, I want to include everyone in this activtie and it would be much safer to do it out in the school grounds. When Colena ignored his warning Festo slaps her wrist. “I said not now!” he hissed. “Take it outside and do it,” handing it to me. “OPEN IT!!!” Colena screams My curiosity was definitely on Colena’s side so my arms atomaticely flipped the bag upside down and a person fell out, “AHHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT,” I jump immediatly covering my mouth when I sweared although no one seem to notice as they were too, screaming and shrieking.

As I turned to study it more I realizeded “IT’S MAXWELL’S CORPSE! The three of us said in usion. However, as the words left our mouth, Maxwell moved and took a ground-shaking breath. “HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?” my mind spinning back to the memory of him getting swallowed by the worm.

“I-I-I don’t quite remember anything.” he said, turning to study the room. After a few minutes, the cloudiness of his eye disappeared and he seemed normal. “Well, Maxwell, we are glad you are here. Now you can help us study the bag.” Festo said definitely not caring that he just came back for the ‘dead’ a few minutes ago.

Outside in the school grounds we decide to open the bag and reach into it. As Colena prys the bag open a light fog spills out of it and wraps itself around the class.

I couldn’t help but breathe it in, I braced for a terrible smell and faint but it suprisingly felt really good. I felt like anything was possible. EPIK! Colena bellowed, kinda ruining the moment. Cyntia fans her wings gently and the fog clears some more. Going back to what we were supposed to be doing, Colena reaches into the bag and leans towards the bag lower and lower. She puts her other hand in and then jumps in.

Whoosh she disappeares I jump feet first down the bag too. The bag felt like I was in space, drifting around as I had no control of the movements I was able to do. As I fall down and down, I see Colena under me and land on her back. We drift away from each other, and then paddle back together.

Then the world tips and me and Colena fall out of the bag not knowing how long we were in there for Colena asks but Rachael does not answer. We all try to burn the bag but the fire just evaporates as soon as it hits the bag! We try to throw other types of magic but we all get the same result. Chris and Colena heads up to the library Cynthia jumps into the bag. A few minutes later she launches out again as Colena and Chris return. She then reaches her hand in and pulls something out. A single card in her hand showing a comet shooting threw the sky which disintagrates seconds later.

She then flinched and froze. “A voice in my head told me that if I can fight the next monster that comes towards me by myself, I will level up,” she says. “Huh” “Hmm! I wanna try.” Colena reaches into the bag and draws a card covered in flames which also disolves seconds later just like the previous. The area dims and we hear a hissing sound.

As a snake head comes out followed arms and a torso out of the bag. Cynthia charges towards it and zaps the serpent although accidentally hitting Maxwell and Colena in the process. She launches her arms and fire erupts towards the Scale thingy. Still recovering from the previous shock and launches itself towards Cynthia who ducks and rolls just barely missing the piercing jaws of the monstrous creature.

“If you need help, Cynthia, we can help or do you want to do it yourself?” Colena asked “Nope,” she says dodging another swing of the snakes tale.

Then, light went screaming out of her hands as it blasts the snake-man. The light hits it’s cheat before spreading across it’s body. It drops, and disappears. Colena rushes towards the bag again to get another card.

“Whooooo did you kill something, it smells like you killed something,” the cheerful voice of Sir Festo said, sniffing the air. “So did you figure out anything” “THE BAG IS RENGAR’S BAG!” Colena shouts. “Wait Rengar?” YES, RENGAR’S BAG Colena clarified as she pulls another card with the artwork of a crumbling city “Now It says now all the wealth that I’ve had in my life is gone” Colena mumured as the card disappeared. “Hm! It’s not like I own any wealth or stuff like that anyways.” as she reaches towards the bag again. “W-w-wait! Hold on Colena. The bag just removed all the wealth and money you owned and you are going to reach into it again! Sir Festo asked but Colena already pulled a card, showing a skull “It says I have activated the avatar of death, a creature will spawn and fight me.

However, anyone who trys to help will get their own avatar of death.” Just as the last word slipped out of Colena’s mouth, a huge towering creature came running towards Colena.

Cynthia throws something at it, flaps her wings and flies away and just as Colena explained surely, her own avatar of death apperrres. Rachael waves her hands and blue light comes dashing out hitting Colena’s Avatar of Death which now seems badly injured.

Again, the Avatar streatches itself until it duplicates, the new one charging towards Rachael who was turning blue just like Tyrande. I whip my head to see Cynthia building a dirt wall around her avatar and Colena slicing her Avatar of Death. It’s head rolls off his shoulders and falls to the ground. Rachaels Avatar then comes charging towards her, but

as it hits her, no harm was done to Rachael and instead, the avatar was clutching his shoulder in pain.

Cynthia’s Avatar was still surrounded, it roars and surprisingly levitates above the wall, before gliding towards Cynthia.

Rachael’s whole body was glowing blue why now and when her own avatar lashes towards her she kind of smirks as it disappears. Colena then vanishes and spawns right above Cyntia’s avatar throwing fire at it; however it still is not dead.

Colena’s new avatar spawns right under her eager for her to fall. After that, Cynthia throws one of her hands out and a floor generates just above Colena’s Avatar for Colena to land on. Another Avatar of death then spawns itself next to Cynthia’s other Avatar. As it spaws, light comes blasting in every direction from Cynthia killing the rest of all the avaters.

Rachael then calls us over and explains how she sees a spy following as. “Hi spy,” she whispered and it disaperres. We headed to the arcade Sir Festo pushed open the doors which definitely looked more like a casino than an arcade. Colena disappears.

Don’t drink anything people give you, and you will be fine. Festo promises handing each of us some money.

Maxwell starts a game of BlackJack and wins. I see in the corner of my eye Sir Festo telling me to come. I pretended not to notice and walked as far away from him as the room allowed. “Pss, Tokyo, come here.” He waved his hand. I rolled my eyes and stalked over.

I helped him cheat for two rounds. Yea! Uh… I guess it’s just beginner's luck! He says pulling a mountain of money towards himself. We walk out of the card room and I realize Cynthia just won some money on Camel Racing too. Sir Festo barely clamped his fingers around the door handle as it opens and there stood a humongous minotaur holding a very injured Colena by the scruff of her shirt dangling her 2 feet off the ground Colena tried to blast him but the magic dove towards a metal bracelet clamped on his wrist. A deep voice cleared their throat behind us. I turned to a man that I reconize but forgotten the name of. “It apperres that the money won tonight was not won fairly.” he says.

As I went back to school, we went to the office, and we stood around a bag. As we open it smoke comes out. Later someone asks to destroy the bag, then it turns it out is leather. After we walk out because we need money. On our way there we got attacked, by avatars of death that came out of the bag. Soon we fought them off. After that, we went to a casino, where the older years cheat to get more money, and we got found out.

I am a merchant and I own a sand skipper. It's pulled by big disgusting millipedes.

The reason I use a sand skipper is that there are big giant worms that hunt by vibration. If I rode a horse, the colossal worms might eat me. The story opens when I was hired by lady Tyrondae, a person I knew because I once studied under her about fifteen years ago. She used to be an ambassador for a place called Icelandia but she has been a teacher for a magic school, the one I went to, for the last hundred years.

First I did not believe she was here but she could prove to me that she was indeed who she said she was through magical communication. So I was excited to see her again and her class of students I gathered was somewhat dangerous because she needed help. I was guiding my ship to the rendezvous point when I saw some figures in the distance. I gathered that they are the people I am looking for. A fiery explosion shocked the earth and as the smoke cleared I could see the figures picking themselves up so I continued to them. As I got closer I got even more worried because I could see the signs of one of those giant worms I didn’t see it but I could see maybe yesterday it attacked something but worms have a migratory pattern they move at a particular angle so it most likely would have left well, that explosion was gigantic though so it might have come back. I recognized lady Tyrondae by her distinctive light blue skin. I could see another dozen students, a few of them worn out, some of them badly injured, then I realized none of them were moving and lady Tyrondae was signaling for me to get over here, so I went over there. Slowly and steadily, everyone started to climb aboard the side of my ship. I'm aware that if they made too many steps on the ground a worm could come up and eat them alive. A student slipped dangling dangerously close to the sand and another one also slipped and I watched as a girl, Grace, fell past the ship until a person, using magic blasts her, rather violently onto the ship. I understand that she only did that because that would attract the worm but the impact causes the other boy to fall off the ship and impacts the sand. I watch as a hole opens up in the ground and a gigantic worm rises from the deep, Lady Tyrondae jumps effortlessly onto the ship and says “ Maxwell, I’m glad you’re here.” Then suddenly everyone started to fire the ship's cannonballs at the worm. Another surprise happens, a student, Chris grabs one of the millipedes and rides away then an unforeseen cannonball comes out of the ship again and hits the ground under Chris and he falls but I am sensing he is still alive. Three of the students suddenly fire a blast of magic at the worm and it does nothing, then the worm sucks the students in and makes their hand stuck on the worm’s tongue. The worm tries to eat everyone else but everyone ducks and the worm misses everyone and in retaliation, everyone fires magic at the worm the try and free the three students but the magic bounces of the tongue and hits the deck of the ship and it lights on fire and in the confusion the three students manage to get free from the worm and jumps onto the ground. Then, someone steers the ship left as if they were trying to go into the chasm where the worm was and the heaving winds extinguishes the fire on the ship then a blast of destruction magic hits the worm and it disappears and it turns out the lady Tyrondae had been charging up a spell.

I woke up in a bed, went for breakfast and me and my friend went with the 2nd year to check out this mysterious bag and one of our group member chris, went to go to the library to research on the bag and came back with some details on what this bag is. That its probably the bag of rengar.But then one of the second years, colena jumped in and angela another one of out 2nd years went in aswell.But then rachel decide to tip over the bag and the two 2nd years fell out.Then, cyntha puts her hand in a pulls out a card and then stop moving and she was staring at the air and then, she told colena to choose a card and she chose a serpent looking card.

SUddenly, a snake head emerged from the bag and while it wa emerging arms and legs were starting to appear and went to attack colena so cynthia decide to explode it and the monster shed to pieces.As dumb as colena is she draws another card and on the card is a skull and then a bit black cloacked monster with a sythe appears and then cynthia jumps in and the monster duplicates. Eventually they both take out the monsters.but suddenly a spy orb appears above rachel and no one seems to notice except herself.So we head to the casino and we stated to play for fun games.

Class 9 Class was really weird, we had a bag and some of my classmates went into the bag. Also, they tried to blow up the bag and light it on fire. Then, there were some Avatars of Death. Then, some of my classmates went gamling for money and Festo betted on Rachael's life.

During illusion class we made our own illusion I made a dragon while someone else failed and ended up setting things on fire which didn’t help. Festo told us we were going on a “trip” which turns out we were going to a casino to get some money because the village we were in didn’t accept magic money. I ended up doing the camel race and cheated a little bit >:). Then when the casino closed the guards told us they needed to check if we cheated and well we cheated quite a bit so we ended going to jail.

Colena Shan

Date: January 8, 3082 Location: M Litterae Est Magicae “Yes Colena?” Argon said, as Rachael came to. “What do you want?”

I showed him the Amulet. “Marysa’s inside,” I insisted, “she’s not dead.”

“And you tell us that now?” Argon said.

“I found it last night—or early this morning,” I protested. “And you were concentrating and stuff then.”

Argon held out his hand expectantly. I didn’t give him the Amulet, but I removed the Dagger from Rachael’s pack and the bones from mine and gave those to him.

“We found those in the forest,” I explained. “Can I free Marysa now?”

“No!—not here,” Argon went on to explain the dangers of failing stuff in pocket dimensions which I didn’t listen to. He stopped, then said, “Lady Tyrande’s gone on a mission.”

“To look for Gilmor?” I asked.

“Yes,” Argon replied.

Two teachers gone. Was it really wise to let Tyrande go?

*******

After a quick breakfast, which included Festo giving us a pep talk none of us listened to (except for the last part, which was, “Go to my office after your meal”), Angela, Rachael and I headed off to Festo’s office, Angela and Rachael complaining that we couldn’t have gone with the other second years and just had to miss out.

Trying to be polite, we knocked on Festo’s door instead of kicking it down like Angela wanted to, pushing it open when he told us to come in.

“So today,” he said, “we’ve got two business to attend to. Um, and unfortunately they both fall to us. As you know, Tyrande has left for our trepid search for Professor Gil. I don’t anticipate this taking her more than a day, but it’s fallen to me to not only accomplish my own goal today, but also hers. Simply put, we’ve got two things we need to do. First and foremost we’re going to need some money. You see, we negotiated with the palace and with the city, who allowed us to stay, but it would appear that several of our students went on a rather expensive shopping extravaganza and the money that we’re generally able to create with magic has been rejected. So we’re on the hook for rather a lot of cash. But it’s okay-” “Can’t we just use magic to make them?” I interrupted.

“No no no, that’s what didn’t work. We thought they would take magic funds, and they—” “If we can’t use magic to make money,” I pointed out, “How else are we supposed to make money? Get a job?”

Festo gave us a boring lecture, “There are five major characteristics of currency: scarcity, fundability - that’s not going to help this session. What you need to know is that they need money that is real. Like, not the stuff that we’ve been making and passing on lately.”

“Oh, so you guys make fake money,” I said, shaking my head.

“Fake money, yes. That is the legal term with which I am being charged. So, uh, I need to get some real money. And I’ve got a way for that, but unfortunately I have to look after the first years. So, we will arrange a field trip for the second half of this day to go to a gaming house to play some games!”

“While we’re there, you will watch the first years, who will be playing games, and I will earn some money!” he said happily.

What the actual [CENSORED].

“Uh, Festo, is there anything we should know about this arcade thing?” I asked.

“Pfft, I don’t know, but it sounds awesome. Have a good time!” he said cheerfully.

“What games are there?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” Festo responded.

“What makes you think it’s so awesome then?” I demanded.

“There’s the one where you shoot each other and dance the whole time with costumes?” Festo said, in a tone that stated he was making it up.

“I hate dancing and I hate costumes and I hate shooting,” I snapped.

“I never said you had to play a game, you just had to chaperone the first years!” Festo said.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” I queried.

Festo continued to speak crap about games.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” I repeated.

My question was ignored while Festo continued to rant off every single game he knew, even though I was sure none of them was at the arcade thing.

“Can. You. Please. Not,” I said through clenched teeth. “I have a question.”

“Yes?” Festo said.

“Why do we need to chaperone the first years?” I asked for the third time.

“Just a second,” he replied, then lowered his voice to a whisper to address Angela and Rachael.

“What kind of games are you going to play?” I said.

“Oh, uh, probably Poker.”

“Festo, can’t you just use an illusion and use them to spy on the others?” I asked irritably.

“Because I can’t teach the first years to cheat as I am about to do,” he said as if the case was closed.

Rage Mode: ON. [insert me screaming and startling all the illusion Festos in his office, banging my fist on his table, screaming some more, yelling about how cheating sucks, how he sucks, how—yeah, it pretty much ended up with Festo calming me down with difficulty, and Angela protesting she wanted me to continue raging] “More important things to do!” he said. “Tyrande left this.” He pulled out a bag, which Rachael and I recognized immediately.

The Bag of Rengar—an illusion of it had been put in his tomb, along with his other three objects: The Amulet that was currently resting in my pocket, the Orb in who-knows-where, and the Staff of Primar, last seen in Gil’s hands, wielded by the Protector of Primar. I’d heard of the bag being called the Bag of Many Torments.

Rachael immediately stated everything she knew about the Bag of Many Torments, until Angela asked her politely to stop.

I reached for the bag, intending to take something out, when Festo shrieked, “DON’T!” and startled, I leapt backwards six feet in the air.

“Why can’t I open it?” I demanded.

“I don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to figure out! Tyrande pulled this from the stomach of the worm,” Festo said.

Rachael made a disgusted noise.

I tried to get the bag again, but Festo noticed and slapped my wrist. Wincing, I withdrew my hand.

“If you’re not going to let me open it,” I protested, “then what’s the point of having it?”

Festo said something about illusion spells that nobody listened to, snapping his fingers and making a pair of spectacles appear, looking very ridiculous on him and shoved it on my face with a bit of unnecessary force.

The bag was glowing as bright as the sun. Festo was glowing too, but not half as much as the bag. I turned to look at Angela and Rachael. Both were glowing, but very faintly compared to Festo and the bag.

“Does this sense stupidity?” I asked Festo, taking the spectacles off.

“No, it measures elate, wild magic that has been gathered around an individual or an object. As you can see, it’s registering what he did on this bag. So no, you’re not going to open it here. Dangerous magic outside the tower makes sense. We are literally standing in a pocket dimension – a place that exists between space. And if something should disrupt it – like a large magical explosion – it could collapse! Do you know what happens when a space between space collapses while you’re inside of it?”

“Um, you die?” I guessed.

“Probably. Nobody’s gotten out of one that collapsed.” Festo shrugged.

“Okay, let me try,” I offered.

“Definitely not. Outside,” he snapped firmly. He tossed the bag to Angela. Big mistake. Rachael was the most responsible out of us three, and Angela’s the naughtiest of the second years. She flipped the bag over, and a person fell out.

He gasped for air, wheezing slightly. We recognized him at once.

“Maxwell,” I said warily. “Is this your bag?”

******* Maxwell told us it wasn’t his bag, and when I asked him if he knew how he got there, he merely shook his head, claiming that he’d been stabbed by the teeth of the Worm, then he found himself in a tight space…until Angela dumped him out.

We met the first years just outside the tower, and I grabbed the bag from Angela, and opened it. White light swirled around me, and in that moment, I felt like I could do anything. Anything was possible, and everything I did made an impact, and a different choice would be the difference between life and death.

Cynthia backed away nervously, but we told her it was all right, and she hesitated for a moment, then nervously let the white light swirl around her. She relaxed.

I reached inside of the bag. The bag was the size of a normal backpack, yet as my arm went inside, I felt no bottom. I jumped inside, and felt myself falling.

Angela joined me shortly afterward, and no matter what we did, we couldn’t get out. Then I felt as if I was being turned upside down, and I fell out of the bag. Cynthia had apparently flipped the bag over, letting us out.

Cynthia slipped inside it, and managed to get out without us touching the bag. She looked confused.

Five seconds later, one of us had declared to destroy the bag, and we immediately shot spell after spell at it—but burning, blasting, slicing etc had no effect whatsoever on it. Chris left us to do some research in the library, and came back looking pleased with himself. Cynthia put her hand in the bag, and withdrew it, the hand clutching a card, showing a comet streaking towards the ground. The card disintegrated in her hand.

I stepped forward, put my hand in the bag too, until it closed around something. I lifted the card out, this one with a picture of flames, and the card crumbled as well. The world darkened—an ominous sign, and a hissing sound came from the bag. Instinctively, I

leapt backwards, as the head of a snake appeared. Cynthia waved her hands in the air, and ended up zapping the serpent, Maxwell, and I with lightning. I glared at Cynthia, who managed to kill the serpent with a blast of fire.

Festo came out of the Tent and started talking nonsense about light shows that Kylie often did, aided by a couple of other Upper Years.

“This is Rengar’s Bag,” I said, showing Festo the Bag of Many Torments.

“The Bag of Many Torments?” Festo said.

“Yeah,” I replied. I put my hand in the bag and drew out yet another card. This one showed the picture of a city, and I heard in my head, Ah…an unfortunate card…

Damn. I hate it when there are voices in my head.

You lose all your wealth, your treasures, your valuables, the voice spoke, as the card also turned into dust.

Well, that’s not too bad, for me, I thought, glancing at the bag, I don’t have many possessions.

I reached my hand into the bag, eager to get another card.

“Hey—wait—” Festo called, “it just took away your wealth and now you’re gonna get more?”

“Shut up, Festo!” I snapped. “I don’t have many valuables to begin with!” I drew out another card, and the image on the card was a skull. At first, I thought it was Death—I would die, but I was wrong. A figure came out of the bag, clad in a dark black robe, wielding a scythe. I recognized it at once—it was an Avatar of Death.

You and the Avatar must fight until one of you die, whispered the voice in my head, and if anyone tries to help you, they, too, will get an Avatar they must fight, to show that this is yours and no one else’s battle.

The card dissolved.

Cynthia lunged forwards and attacked it. The Avatar of Death swung its scythe at her, but Cynthia managed to dodge it easily, flying higher into the air. A second Avatar duplicated from the first and hurled itself at Cynthia.

I blasted the Avatar of Death I was supposed to kill. It swung its scythe towards me, but it missed by ten meters because I’d flung myself to one side. Rachael flicked her hands and there was a nice, satisfying explosion and my Avatar of Death got blasted with her magic. Yet another Avatar of Death appeared, and also a crowd. They were coming to see what the commotion was all about.

“YOU CAN BET ON OUR BATTLES!” I screamed at Festo as I wrecked my Avatar of Death. “DIDN’T YOU WANT TO GET MONEY? HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!” Cynthia wasn’t exactly doing great progress with her Avatar of Death, so I quickly scaled a tree without much difficulty, launched myself at it, creating a large, silver javelin not unlike Segall’s that stabbed her Avatar of Death in the chest and the new Avatar of Death that sprung to life (can I say “sprung to life” if it’s a creature of death, though?) charged at me.

Rachael swiftly demolished her Avatar of Death, much to the disappointment of three people who’d accepted Festo’s bet. I fell out of the sky, landing on a thick branch and toppling off of it but still managing to land feet first.

Finally, all the Avatars were destroyed, and I reached for the bag, but it wasn’t there. I glanced at Festo, who was wearing a rather disapproving face.

“Well…hello spy,” Rachael said, glancing up in the air.

I hate it when people get good side effects and I don’t.

******* Festo led us to the Casino, of all places, not an arcade, which triggered a lot of arguing because…

A) We’re underage! Bruh.

B) C) D) E) F) G) H) I)

Gambling is bad.

Casinos are weird.

The games are unfair af We don’t like Blackjack We don’t like Roulette We don’t like Camel-Racing Betting We don’t like helping people cheat to win games at a casino and…

CASINOS SUCK, thank you very much!

P.S. Gambling is for losers.

Most of us stayed outside, wearing disgusted looks. I went onto Ethereal, to free Marysa in goddamn peace, something I hadn’t had since the second years arrived. And I had to meet an ugly looking minotaur of all the creatures I could’ve seen and get beaten up by.

“The Ethereal Plane is off-limits here,” the Minotaur said curtly.

“Okay,” I said irritably.

“Get off now,” the Minotaur snapped.

“Tell you what, I won’t,” I snarled.

Next thing I knew, I was being held by the same, ugly Minotaur, listening to someone I knew pretend to be a Vizier and say, “Not so fast! I think we should examine this new development, and that the new people…I don’t think they’re playing honestly.”

I glared at the “Vizier”.

“You mean fairly?” I snapped.

“Correct, yes. I would say not completely fair. Is that an accurate statement, little girl? I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask all of you to consent to an enforced investigation,” the “Vizier” said.

“Go ahead,” I snarled.

“Quite glad to,” he said with a sneer.

I glanced at Rachael, to see if she had realized who this man was. By the look on her face, she definitely had, and was shooting me with a, “What are you doing?” expression.

So, today we are having a field trip, wow. I am suspicious of everything, we are going to an arcade with games like “mine build” or something, also the fraud money that the Jerrys make no longer allowed so Festo the bootleg santa guy was going to play cards to get some money and I believe was going to cheat for ez money and didn’t want to leave us unsupervised because tyrande was not with us so he gave us a leather bag that reminded me of a potato sack.

Colena opened the bag and some white smoke appeared from the bag and I thought that I could do anything, I was a bit suspicious of the smoke. A bunch of people decided to jump into the bag for some reason.

I decided to go and research the bag in the library and found the following statement “Rengon’s 4 artifacts are, Rengon’s Staff, a staff wielded by the guardian of primar, Rengon’s Orb, its is a orb that has magic in it, Rengon’s Amulet that could trap people, Rengon’s Bag, this bag was called The Bag Of Torments, It held a lot of bad things like plagues and things like that.

So I get back to the group and I see Cynthea pop out of the bag and also did I mention that you CAN’T ESCAPE IT. people start pulling out cards and crap and now we have to deal with Avatars of Death. Now that we have dealt with DEATH ITSELF we go to the arcade and I just chill at the entrance. After 1 blink of an eye the casin- I mean arcade owners are thinking that some of us are cheating.

SESSION TEN

The Mind Prison

Rachael January 7, 3802 ount on us to get arrested on no charge. Well, not exactly on no charge, just a really ridiculous one.

They literally said, “We arrest you in the name of the law for cheating in gambling.” Considering the facts for the past like, two days (wow it really had only been two days), with Gil disappearing and the Bag of Many Torments and whatnot, I really wasn’t surprised.

We got - rather roughly - shoved into a cell already inhabited by two people, who looked partially delighted that they had other company and partially confused as to why a whole bunch of children just got shoved into their cell. Festo wasn’t there - and a feeling of dread began to creep into my mind, for I didn’t remember where he had gone, or whether he really went at all.

Colena stuck to the back of the group, near the Minotaur. Her hand trailed to her pocket, where she kept the amulet that she had somehow obtained. As the door was squeaking a little on its hinges as it started to close, Colena whirled around and held the amulet towards the Minotaur. Another brilliant flash of white light occurred, and the man was still standing there, with no changes, except the fact that he was looking rather confused as the last of the light bounced off his sleeve and dissipated.

“Huh,” he said, “That shouldn’t have worked in here.”

“That’s just me experimenting,” Colena replied cheerfully.

“Right,” the man grunted.

“What material are the bars made of?” Colena asked.

“Uh, I don’t know, I guess metal?” The Minotaur shrugged. I scowled. Colena seemed less than satisfied with this answer. In a blur she was at the bars again, trying to make a run for it again. The man blocked her, and she submitted, stepping into the cell with a glare as the Minotaur said, “Someone should be along to bring you food soon.”

“Is the food poisoned or is it soaked with some kind of potion?” Colena inquired.

“Uh, I don’t - I don’t know, I don’t think so?” the beefy man replied, which was not at all reassuring.

Then there was this argument about whether we were innocent or not, of which the main protagonists were Colena, Chris, and the man. He looked appalled, and told us that he had never arrested someone who was innocent before. I snorted. Looks like not cheating in casinos is a law here, my brain whispered.

That’s the stupidest law I’ve ever heard of, I thought back, Who passes the legislation here?

I don’t know, sounds like they’re also pretty dumb, my brain agreed.

So since the bickering and yelling was going nowhere, the man went, and returned, saying, “Hey, hey, I heard. Like, honestly, I’m so sorry. I’ve never arrested innocent people before, we only arrest guilty people. So like, if you’re telling me you’re innocent - so look, I brought my supervisor over here.” And he gestured to the figure behind him, and as that figure came into the light, it turned out to be the Grand Vizier. His eyes flickered from one of us to the other, his face lacking all expression.

“I’m terribly sorry,” he said, clearly trying to sound sincere but doing a horrible job, “Are you all innocent?”

There was a chorus of “yes”s and “of course”s and “exactly”s around the room, which was probably the answer that the Vizier expected.

“But that can’t be true,” the Vizier said, feigning surprise, “We have the key right here! I don’t have a reason why I should let you go! Oh, that’s right, that’s the reason I’ve got to come down here!

Ha-ha!”

The Grand let out a laugh, and a sneer played across his face as he turned, still laughing, and walked out of the room. He was at the doorway when Colena said, “When will we be released?”

He paused. “We have some things we need to discuss. As you say, you’re not guilty, you’re just kids! The crimes you committed were not of your own choice. I do apologize for locking you up with such dangerous criminals - watch out for the ones at the back, they are hardened robbers,” he replied, rather coldly, “I’ll be back in a little while and we’ll have a discussion.”

“What’s your definition of a little while, and when you come back for a discussion will you give us a truth telling potion?” Colena asked.

“I won’t need a truth telling potion, time will do that for me - I’ll see you in a week? Or a month?

Maybe a year? It’s difficult to tell time down here.” He smiled, then slammed the bars shut with a clang, turned the key in the lock, and walked away.

“Do you have anything in your pockets?” Colena asked the two prisoners who were in there before us.

“A teleporter,” one of them replied.

“If you guys had teleporters, you would've gotten out of here by the next second.”

“I have a pencil,” the other said, holding up one. Cynthia lunged and snatched the pen from her, and stuck it in the lock.

Meanwhile, I was attempting to count seconds, because I wanted to see whether time really was difficult in that place. It really was. It was not long before I lost count, whereupon I started again, and lost count again.

What seemed like 6 days passed in that prison, while we attempted to smash, pick, and break out of the cell. Yet it really seemed like we hadn’t slept (and the truth is I didn’t), for none of us seemed tired at all. Colena, who had a watch, kept on fiddling with it and looking down at it. The watch never moved, however long we tried to fix it. It stayed at 21:48.

I kept on trying to spark magic, twirling my fingers, though nothing worked. It seemed like no wild magic lingered in this place, and the only kind of magic would be Argon’s magic, which was pretty old magic, considering that Rengar died and scattered wild magic three hundred years ago.

A week passed. But the strange thing was, nobody brought anything to eat or drink, and no one slept. And yet we weren’t starving - some of us weren’t hungry at all. Some of us had parched throats, but nothing more, and continued to live. We weren’t sleep deprived, and nor were we very tired, for I was almost sure that the day that we got arrested hadn't even ended, and the reason the watch was frozen was because time was being manipulated in there.

The Grand Vizier walked in. He looked rather pleased, and he started by saying, “Ah! Hey everybody, sorry, I got lost in this place. It’s like a huge maze. No one’s ever broken out of here.”

Colena tried saying something, but it was drowned out by the Vizier’s words.

“Sorry Colena? You spoke while I was speaking, which was very rude. Go ahead.”

“Yeah, I don’t care about being rude,” she muttered, before raising her voice and saying, “By the way, I don’t think you’re telling the truth about being lost on the way.”

“Yeah, that’s right, that was a lie. Anyway. You should remember talking about having a conversation-” “Something you probably shouldn’t be doing-” Colena got cut off from lecturing the Vizier about not lying.

“-I’m going to talk to you. One of you. Someone that’s not Colena. I’ll talk to you, and we’ll see if we can negotiate. Do I have any volunteers?”

“How do you know my name?” Colena wondered.

Justin was the first. The Vizier opened the door, then closed it, locked it, and led Justin down the hall, into a doorway, and disappeared. A few minutes later, the door opened, Justin was ushered in, and Chris was taken out. After that, the entrance swung open once again, and this time Chris came in, and I left the cell.

I was led down a hallway, to a door that opened into a room. The room was a brightly lit room, and surprisingly warm. There was a platter of food on the table, and two chairs that did look rather comforting. There were a lot of spinning hourglasses behind the Vizier, who was sitting on the couch, which I presumed regulated how long it seemed in the cell compared to the world outside. In fact, I was pretty sure that only one hour or so had passed. One of them was moving very fast, while some were moving less fast but still faster than some.

“Rachael,” the Vizier began, as I gingerly sat down on one of the chairs, “Why did you kill Lady Tyrande?”

I do admit that that question caught me incredibly by surprise. The thing is, I didn’t. So I calmed myself and said, almost to myself, “Did I?” “Did you indeed? Things I hear might not be as they seem. Why did Professor Gil betray Gustav?”

I laughed and said, “Why do you want to know?”

His eyes narrowed. “Well, what I want is for you to tell the truth once so I can have a baseline for my lie detection. Is your name Rachael?”

“Obviously,” I said with a smile, “though it could be Elizabeth if you really wanted to believe that.”

“Hmm… you don’t know what I know.” Then I began to piece together the shards that were floating around. There was no way - absolutely no way - for the Grand Vizier to know both Colena and my names. Therefore, either 1. The Grand Vizier somehow figured it out, which was unlikely because he didn’t seem the kind of person who went around being like “Hey, what’s that girl’s name?”. So the second option was that this person was not the Grand Vizier at all, and simply someone I had known that had been excellent at illusion, and had trusted for a little while. There was only one person who fit that criteria, for Festo didn’t like to do such nasty tricks.

“Where is the Bag of Many Torments?”the-person-I’m-not-going-to-reveal-yet/the Vizier asked, his form already beginning to flicker.

“Why should I tell you?” I asked.

“I could offer you something in return. What do you want?”

“I’d like nothing because I am not doing anything.”

“What did you get out of the bag?”

“Why are you so curious?”

“I am curious because its power still lingers on you and that’s not supposed to happen. So it’s either a curse or it’s a gift.”

“On me?” I said, pretending to be shocked and offended (because I didn’t pull anything out of the Bag of Many Torments), “You must be mistaken.”

“Hm. Perhaps I am. How long- How long have you harboured a desire to leave the school?”

I hesitated for a split second, because the correct answer to that question was since I got beat up by the Crucible.

“How long? Why do you want to know that?”

He paused. “Why did you abandon your tutor?”

“What do you know about him?” The thing is, I already knew that this person knew everything about “my tutor”.

“The one who looked after you before you came to M Litterae Est Magicae.”

“What do you want to know?”

“I want to know what he did to offend you. I want to know what drove you away.”

“Or maybe,” I said with a hiss, “you’re trying to deceive me and pretend you’re sympathizing.”

“I have never deceived you any more than was necessary. This interview is over, bring her back.

Yes, bring her back. Bring me a different one.” It was only afterwards, when I replayed the memory over in my mind, that I registered the hurt on his face.

Angela left and never came back. Nothing else happened for a while - in fact, what seemed like a year passed before anything exciting happened. Cynthia seized the pen again, and inserted it into the lock. A week passed before there was a click, and the lock relented, the door swinging open. All that supposed year I neither ate nor slept nor drank, because there was no reason to as this prison played tricks on my mind. Lilymarie and Kelymarie - those were the names of the two prisoners - sprang to their feet, as did I, while the others grudgingly followed. We looked at both of them, because we thought they might know a way out of this.

Lilymarie looked totally confused once she saw how we were looking at her. Kelymarie, meanwhile, led the way out of the room because the rest of us had no memory at all of being led into the prison.

We spent some time going left, then right, then left again, then left, then right, then left, then right, then right… before we came to a dead end (we also walked right past Angela’s jail cell, which I felt pretty bad about). Then some of us looked around for a door, and there really wasn’t anything. The slate grey walls held no surprises, which was a surprise in itself. Colent tried walking through the wall like it was Platform Nine and Three Quarters, but hit the wall and staggered back, rubbing her head.

There was a laugh behind us, and we turned around. The Grand Vizier kept on laughing. “Thank you, Kelymarie, for leading them into my trap.”

Colena yelled, “Charge!” She rushed at him, but he swept his hand in an arc, and the doorway turned into a wall, hiding him from view and rendering us trapped. Colena tried running into that wall, and bounced off. There was more laughter, a couple of inappropriate swear words from Colena, and footsteps as the Vizier walked away.

It was pretty dark in that room, and no one had a match or any light. Magic still didn’t work. We stayed there, dejected, for a while, before we heard the voice of the Minotaur. He said, “Uh… how are you guys doing there?”

“We’re doing better than expected, thank you,” Colena said sarcastically.

“Um… so listen: I was talking to some of the other guards, and they feel kinda bad for you. So if you just want to tell them- if you just want to tell them, you can go.”

Colena, being Colena, said, “I want to tell him that he’s pretty stupid and [REDACTED FOR INNAPROPRIATE REASONS].”

His voice sounded a little muffled as he called to the other guards, “Yeah, guys, she wants to tell you that you’re pretty stupid! Yeah… no?” His voice sounded a little clearer when he said, “I don’t think that’s the thing he wants to hear.”

“Can you ask what he wants to hear?” Colena snapped.

His voice sounded more muffled when he said, “What do you want to hear? What’s a berry? Uhhe- a Gerry?”

“A Jerry?” Colena exploded, “Do you mean you’re-” “No, I - a Jerry?” he continued, speaking to his confederate. “A Gerry,” he said, turning back to us, “I think he said he wanted a Gerry.”

“That sounds like a Jerry,” Colena said, “Hold on, I know where a Jerry is. Can I ask him if he wants to know?”

“Uh… yup,” the Minotaur said, “Hang on, let me figure out how to use this-” There was a smashing noise, and the wall turned into a doorway, revealing eight Minotaurs.

“Uh, so if you could just fill out - I’ve got a form here, and if you’d just write down the information we need to know here, that’d be great, and then say that Number 4 is the one who helped you, that’d be really good for me.” He held out a newspaper thing.

“What number am I?” Colena asked.

“No, it’s for work- we’re clones. Well, we’re not ‘clones’, you see, it’s just- we’ve just got- uh, they’ve duplicated - well, we’re real - just write Number 4.”

“Alright, we’ll just say Number 4 made it all very confusing,” Colena said, “Can you read?”

“Of course I can read!”

Colena leaned over the paper and wrote on the paper: How dare you!

She handed the paper to the Minotaur, and said, “What does this say?”

“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s going to get it done for you.”

“But do you know what it says? Please read it aloud.” “‘How dare you’,” the Minotaur read.

“Excellent. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to write something else.”

There is a Jerry, she wrote, in the far desert of Uridin and it’s in a pocket dimension that you can only access in Uridin. The very central point of the region contains the entrance.

I don’t know if Colena just wasn’t paying attention, or if Colena was trying to throw them off scent, because we weren’t in Uridin. We were in Primar, as she very well knew. The Eridin Desert was south of there.

The Minotaur must have not paid very good attention to his geography class, because he looked very excited and practically exclaimed, “Add the bit on about Number 4!”

Colena leaned down and added, Number Four helped us get really confused and stuff.

“Well, alright, I guess that’s okay,” the Minotaur said, looking a little disappointed, “Okay, um…

We’ll be back!” He took the clipboard from Colena and sauntered out of the room as there was another smashing noise and the doorway turned into a wall again, bathing us once again in darkness.

“Children?” a voice that sounded like Festo called, “Are you there?”

“Are you Festo?” Colena asked.

“Yep, I’m Festo!”

For some reason I didn’t believe that, for “Yep I’m Festo!” sounded 1. Really lame, 2. Wrong accent, and 3. Festo just doesn’t say that.

“Alright. How do we know you’re not a fake Festo and that you’re a real Festo?” Colena said, leaning towards the door/wall.

“You would have no way of knowing.”

“Okay. How many Festos were present the first time I walked into his room in 3802?”

“Uh… two!”

Okay. Definitely not Festo, I thought, the correct answer was three or four.

“Okay, you’re not the real Festo, begone thot,” Colena snapped.

There was a chorus of “go away”s around the room.

“Well, listen, I couldn’t be a fake Festo ‘cause magic doesn’t work in here.”

You could’ve done the illusion spell outside, I thought.

“Mmm… the only types of magic that don’t work are Illusion, Alteration, and Destruction,” Colena said, “You could’ve done a different kind of magic for all we know.”

“Yeah, that’s true, like the bag. The bag’s magic would work.”

“Give me the bag, then. Give me the bag. I demand thee to give me the bag.”

“Well look. They don’t know they got Wishes. I don’t know, I don’t know how you’re supposed to understand you got a Wish.”

“Make the wall into a door so we can see,” someone else demanded.

“Well, like, I heard the first take that they needed to get out of the bag, or whatever, then they shot down our drones, so we couldn’t see the rest of it.”

Definitely not Festo. Please charge the Minotaurs with identity fraud. The drones were the orbs I had seen. Colena gave an exaggerated gasp and said, “Oh right, so you were the spy Rachael was talking about?”

“Sorry, what was your question?”

“Rachael said ‘hello spy’ to something we couldn’t see in the air, when she had a side effect from her spell.”

“Why are you talking to me about spies, I don’t know anything about spies!”

“Then how could you know about the stuff about the drones?”

“I don’t know guys, I think they know about the spies,” the Minotaur said to his confederates, “I don’t know how they figured it out.”

“Guys, you know I can hear you, right?” Colena asked.

“What?”

She laughed. “We heard about the spies.” Then she quietly said, “I wish the Bag of Many Torments was right beside me.”

And it appeared. Then Michael said, “I wish I were literally out of here.” Then we were whisked away, back in time, to the time we got arrested.

“Everyone stay where you are, don’t let anybody get hurt,” the Minotaur said. He looked at a rack full of Poker chips, picked one up, and smashed the guy next to him, a waiter, in the face. Now, guys, THAT WAS VERY RUDE OF HIM. “COVER YOURSELVES!” he yelled, and started casting magic left and right.

Another Minotaur reached out to grab Kelymarie, and she extended her hand towards him, freezing him solid, his eyes mid blink. A whole bunch of red lights streamed towards Lilymarie, who, at the same speed that Tyrande had, zipped away. The red lights impacted the ground, and the ground decided to do nothing.

Kelymarie reached out, attempting to blast the Grand Vizier, who stood at the doorway, with an icicle. Nothing happened, instead, three Floumphs appeared, looked scared, and ran away, one of them towards Angela. The Vizier, meanwhile, looked stunned, and was glaring at the Minotaur next to him.

Lilymarie tried to do something to the Vizier, but then ended up covered in black scales that were impenetrable. A guest next to her freaked out and threw a bottle at her, which shattered against her side, and she didn’t even flinch. She rushed at the Vizier, and blasted fire at him, but he flicked his hand, and a sword appeared in his hand.

“No, no no,” I mumbled, staring as the fight unfolded before me. I’d had my suspicions of course, but seeing it for real really wasn’t a pleasant thing. “No, please don’t be, please tell me you’re not-” He was. His form flickered again, then faded away completely. Standing in his place… was Gustav.

“Check this out,” Festo said, rushing over and clapping his hands, making five clones of everyone.

I kept my eyes on Gustav. Every clone had started running around, screaming. Colena reached into the Bag of Many Torments, and drew out a card that was just black.

The Void, a voice whispered in my head - and probably everyone else’s, for they all froze, This black card spells disaster. Your soul is drawn from your body and contained in an object one or more powerful beings guards. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is incapacitated.

Colena collapsed as the card dissolved. “No!” I whispered, swaying on the spot. Please tell me that’s not true, my mind cried, No no no no no no no no no no…

I knew that I couldn’t really do anything about that, so I reached over and snatched both the bag and the amulet. The amulet I extracted from Colena’s pocket, and the bag was just lying around. I folded the bag and thrust it into my pocket along with the amulet. ...no no no no no no…

Shut up, mind, I told myself. … no no no no.

Grace clapped her hand, then spread them apart, and a purple bubble appeared, throwing machines out of its place as it expanded. Gustav was physically trying to hold it, and doing a horrible job at that. Jerick pushed him down the stairs.

Gustav got to his feet, and his appearance flickered as he attempted to hold his illusion of the Grand Vizier. “STOP,” he yelled. “Stop for a second! Listen. I’m trying to help you. I’ve always been trying to help you.”

“Are you Gil?” Colena’s voice rang out.

“Do not,” he said through gritted teeth, “No, I am not!”

“Then tell me it’s your fault that Rachael died in Lubar Castle!” (guys, please don’t be confused, there was a person named Rachael that died before I came.)

“It is my fault that Rachael died in Lubar Castle!”

“Thank you, Gilmor!” Gustav looked particularly infuriated at being called his replacement’s name. His pointed goatee quivered with anger. He stopped flickering. And then, for the first time in about a year, I saw him clearly as he dropped the glamour he was using to disguise himself. His ghastly face glared at us all through his eyes, which were bloodshot. He scowled, his number of teeth seemingly less than what I’d seen a year ago.

“Hello, Gustav,” said Colena’s voice.

“Hello, Colena,” he replied with a sigh.

“How do you know my name? You’ve never seen me before.”

“Because I learned a great many things before the Jerries threw me out of the tower.”

Colena’s voice started to say something, but Gustav said, “You’re dead, so you shouldn’t be talking right now, so shush, shush!”

“We have the amulet!”

“You can’t talk!”

“Then how am I talking right now? By the way, we have the amulet!”

“Listen,” Gustav said, “Our people, you know, our people-” he snapped his fingers and a fireball appeared, slamming into the ground “-should not be subject to their loss. Think about it. They take some more kids. They lock us up in a tower-” “Yeah, yeah yeah-” Colena’s voice was cut off by Gustav screaming, “You’re dead, shut up!”

“I’m perfectly alive, you know.”

Just to see Gustav’s reaction, my hand drifted to my pocket, and I held up the amulet, letting it dangle in my hand.

“Rachael. Thank you. I knew I could count on you to find the amulet.”

I had a temptation to walk over and hand it to him, for I agreed with him, because it was a violation of rights to drag people off to barren lands. But the other side of me said the right thing to do the noble thing to do - was to not give it to him.

“And Rachael,” Gustav continued, “Please don’t touch the bag. It kills people.” He gestured to Colena’s incapacitated and unconcious body. “In fact, this whole school kills people - it does it on a pretty frightening basis-” “I resent that comment,” Festo said angrily. Gustav glared at him.

“Now hold up, everyone,” Gustav went on, “Listen, listen. Most of your teachers are already gone-” Colena tried to say something, and Gustav said, “You’re dead, Colena, you’re dead.”

“Alright. I’ve already killed two of your teachers already. Just one more to go. Alright. First thing we’ll do is we’ll give the dead kid a lovely burial.” I looked at Colena - or rather, Colena’s useless body.

She was still breathing. “And then you go to my school! Or we can fight, and I’ll kill off all of you, and then the Crucible will give me new students next year.”

My gaze drifted to his sword. He was holding out one hand, while the sword was stuck, pointing down, in the ground, his hand still on the hilt. I noticed that on the pommel of his sword, there was a crystal. Filled with sloshing white light. His hand, meanwhile, had reached behind his back.

“What’s behind your back?” I asked.

He smiled, and gave me a less-than-satisfactory answer. “Opportunity,” he said. Then all hell broke loose.

I will admit that I started this fight. The first thing I did was blast a whole bunch of magic towards him. Cynthia charged out of the mist, and Kelymarie launched an icicle that stuck right through his hand.

Gustav looked at her and said, “The peasants? Even the peasants?”

Kelymarie and Lilymarie looked offended. Lilymarie waved her hand and a whole bunch of benches and trees and lampposts rushed towards Gustav. He snatched up his sword, casting a spell over his shoulder. A tree with a whole bunch of creepy tree fingers punched him in the face. He was launched backwards, and one of his teeth - yellow and rotten - came tumbling out of his mouth. Cynthia swooped in with her wings, and punched him in the face, spiraling back into the sky as he glared at her with a yell of pain. It was a nice move, though I still think that she should’ve kicked him in the soft spot.

Gustav jumped back up to his feet and shouted, “Festo! What are you teaching these little monsters?” Chris ran towards him, and seized the sword out of his hand. Gustav took off running, down towards the tent that was the tower. We ran after him as he pushed the flap aside and stepped into the pocket dimension.

Gustav was already drifting up on the elevator, with a Jerry draped over his back. The suit of armour was protesting, yelling, “Hey, look, what’re you doing?”

He looked at us with a triumphant grin that said, I’ll get you for this later.

As we got lead into the prison by the minitour, as we say we are innocent they let one of us negotiate for all of our freedom. He asks me some questions, and I said no to all of them. Soon after someone realized that the person that interrogated us was a lost teacher. Someone insulted him he got mad and now he is going to kill us all.

So everyone went to jail except Festo. Two people were already in there they were called Kellymarie and Lilymarie. They were a very prosperous family until their mother took a political opposition against the sultan. Then the sultan took their home and their riches. The two people who were in jail tried to rob a place but they got caught A person tried to force the minotaur into the cell with rengar's amulet but it didn’t work then the minotaur left and another person came in and that person was the sultan someone’s mother and he gloated about how no one was getting out.

Someone tried to cast magic but it did not work. A person had a teleporter and teleported a pen, a person tried to pick the lock but it did not work, after the first few days a lot of people tried a lot of stuff but nothing worked, about a week later I realized that I wasn’t getting hungry and someone saw that the clock was not moving. After a month a person came and he wanted to negotiate and someone accepted. The person asked questions about the bag of many torments and a staff and lady Tyrandae and Festo and Rengars amulet and a jerry among other stuff.

Then he asked for the next person. He asked the same questions for that person and the next person and the next person until everyone was done. After a day or two, someone tried to pick the lock again and it worked. Someone led the way because she remembered how she got here but it led to a dead-end, then everyone got captured by the guards. Someone told the minotaur what he wanted to know and he let us go and saved the Festo with the bag of many torments which grants any wish somehow and someone wished we were out of there and we went back in time where we went back to when we were in front of the casino and a minotaur tried to grab someone but that person froze the minotaur. Somehow in the confusion, Colena lost her soul. Next everyone tried to get in the casino but Gusteau the door and someone made herself some sort of winged creature and charged at the person blocking the door but it didn’t work and Festo made copies of everyone and another person dragged the cards out of the bag of many torments and dragged her soul out of her body and everyone ran away after that. After everyone rested and Gusteau came and stuff everyone attacked him and he got knocked out.

We got arrested and were locked in a jail behind metal bars and we met some nice people and they had a plan to dig their way out but nothing worked but soon, i saw some of my being taken away to somewhere i don't know what they were doing but it seems like they are being taken to a room and after around 30 minutes they head out and back into the cage.

Class 10 We were going to a prison, and we tried to tell the guards that we were innocent. Then, we met Kelymarie and Lilymarie. Some of my classmates were in a different room being interrogated by the Grand Vizier. I didn’t go, but a lot of my classmates were being led outside.

Were stuck in a prison we can’t do magic unfortuely so we ended up trying to pick the lock.

Then a minor came we tried to reason with him he believed us at first then we realised he was just faking it. Then this minor came AGAIN and took someone for something which I didn’t really now why for. Some more people leave and come back except for someone who didn’t seem to come back. I use my wings to pick the lock after a little bit and we are able to just get out of the cell. Turns out this prison is impossible to navigat because the last thing we remembered when we got arrested was nothing it’s like our memery broke for a bit then came back. But someone knew there way hooray for us! We followed them and it lead to a dead end great just great we get traped in a box and a minor comes in and offers us freedom if we give him so answer to some questions on a paper we of coarse lied and put fake answer on it. It didn’t help thought because we weren’t freed. Evently someone wished for Rengars bag to be beside them and it worked so someone else wished that we were out of here. Turns out we went back in time and we were back in the casino. We attempted to kill or hurt the guards and turns out this guy was a guy named Gustav and of coarse we attempted to beat him up he went up the tower and he took a Jerry with him and of coarse he vanished.

Colena Shan

Date: January 8, 3082 Location: The Mind Prison Suddenly we were there, talking to the “Vizier”, and suddenly we were not. We were being shoved into a Prison, where two girls were looking rather glumly at the ceiling. Festo wasn’t with us, and I felt a tiny spark of hope. Did he escape?

I was the last person in the line. As Haolin, the kid in front of me, went inside the cell, I put my hand behind my back, seized the amulet without anyone except Rachael noticing, and attempted to trap the Minotaur in it.

There was a flash of light—and when the light was gone, the Minotaur was still standing there, looking at something that his cuff had absorbed.

“Huh,” he muttered, “that shouldn’t have worked in here.”

No illusion, destruction or alteration to help us? Okay, great.

“That’s just me experimenting,” I said hastily.

“Right,” the Minotaur muttered.

“What material are the bars made of?” I asked.

“Metal.” The Minotaur shrugged, and added, “Someone should be along to bring you food soon.”

“Is the food poisoned or is it soaked with some kind of potion?” I asked.

“I don’t know—I don’t think so?” the Minotaur replied, looking really confused.

Then there was this argument about whether we were innocent or not, and the Minotaur looked horrified (but it was only too obvious he was faking), and told us that he had never arrested someone who was innocent before.

“Hey, hey, I heard. Like, honestly, I’m so sorry. I’ve never arrested innocent people before, we only arrest guilty people. So like, if you’re telling me you’re innocent - so look, I brought my supervisor over here.” And he gestured to the figure behind him, and as that figure came into the light, it turned out to be the “Grand Vizier”.

“I’m terribly sorry,” he said, trying to sound sincere but doing a horrible job, “Are you all innocent?”

“Yes,” I said irritably, “and you know it.”

“But that can’t be true,” the “Vizier” said, feigning surprise, “We have the key right here! I don’t have a reason why I should let you go! Oh, that’s right, that’s the reason I’ve got to come down here! Ha-ha!”

The “Vizier” was at the doorway when I demanded, “When will we be released?”

He stopped, and turned to me. “We have some things we need to discuss. As you say, you’re not guilty, you’re just kids! The crimes you committed were not of your own choice. I do apologize for locking you up with such dangerous criminals - watch out for the ones at the back, they are hardened robbers,” he replied, “I’ll be back in a little while and we’ll have a discussion.”

“What’s your definition of a little while, and when you come back for a discussion will you give us a truth telling potion?” I asked.

“I won’t need a truth telling potion, time will do that for me - I’ll see you in a week? Or a month? Maybe a year? It’s difficult to tell time down here.” He smiled, then slammed the bars shut with a clang, turned the key in the lock, and walked away.

“What do you guys have in your pockets?” I asked Lilymarie and Kelymarie, the girls in the cell with us, whom I was more than sure were innocent.

“A teleporter,” Kelymarie said.

“If you guys had teleporters, you’d be out of here,” I said impatiently.

“I have a pencil,” Lilymarie said, showing us a 10 cm long pencil, which Cynthia ripped from the girl’s grip, and started fiddling with the lock. No success…

I glanced at my watch. It had been 21:47 when we entered the casino. Now it was at 21:48. And my watch never moved.

Nobody ever brought us the food or drink, like the Minotaur had said, but I was hardly surprised.

What seemed like days, months, years, passed. It passed…almost like a blur…none of us were ever hungry, sleepy, tired or anything like that. My clock stayed at forty-eight past nine, and then I realized that we were in the type of Prison where time is still going here, but not outside.

The “Vizier” returned, looking rather pleased.

“Ah, hey everybody, sorry, I got lost in this place, such a huge maze—nobody’s ever broken out of here, after all—” “It seems weird to me that you would say such a stupid lie like that,” I cut in furiously.

“What was that, Colena? You spoke while I was speaking, which was very rude,” the “Vizier” said. “Go ahead.”

“Yeah, I don’t care about being rude,” I spat, “By the way, I don’t think you’re telling the truth about anything much.”

“Yeah, that’s right, that was a lie,” said the “Vizier” happily. “Anyway—” “Something you tell us we shouldn’t be doing,” I snarled.

“Who wants a conversation?” he said, adding to me, “Not you, Colena.”

“How do you know my name?” I demanded, but, just as I expected, I got no answer.

One of the Justins offered to go, I hissed, “DON’T TELL HIM ANYTHING!”

Chris went after Justin, Rachael went after Chris, and she returned, looking rather tense. Angela went after her, and never came back.

“Well,” the “Vizier” said, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Angela is free!” Definitely a lie. “The bad new is that she has told me everything I need to know, and has left you here to rot.”

“I don’t believe you when you say Angela is free,” Cynthia said.

“Well,” said the “Vizier” smugly, “she’s certainly not coming back here.”

For the next “year” or so, nobody came to visit us. Cynthia managed (after a good deal of hard work) to pick the lock of the jail cell with a pencil. We glanced expectantly at Kelymarie and Lilymarie, expecting them to know the way out of this place. Lilymarie admitted she’d forgotten, while Kelymarie marched confidently outside, and we followed without question.

Left, left, right, left, right.

It led to a dead end.

“Kelymarie…what did you do?!” Cynthia exclaimed. I tried to go on Ethereal—didn’t work.

I walked up to the blank wall. I put my hands on it, and pushed lightly. Definitely not illusion. I tried walking into the wall.

Nope, definitely not illusion.

“Hahaaha!” cackled a voice behind me.

“Damn you!” I shouted at the “Vizier”.

“Thank you, Kelymarie, for leading them into my trap,” he said happily.

I ran at him, screaming, “CHARGE!” backed up by the first years and Rachael, but with a sweeping movement, the “Vizier” turned the doorway into a wall. I skidded to a halt, just narrowly avoiding crashing on the wall.

I heard laughter, and footsteps, as the “Vizier” left. Cynthia tried to fly out of the roof, and bounced off.

“Uh…how are you guys doing in there?” called the voice of the Minotaur, a few minutes later.

“We’re doing better than expected, thank you,” I said before anyone else could answer.

“Yeah,” agreed Cynthia. “Nothing happened.”

“Listen, I was talking to some of the other guards, and like we feel kind of bad for you…if you just tell him the thing he wanted to know, I’m sure he’ll free you,” the Minotaur responded.

I snorted. So Angela hadn’t told the “Vizier” anything—yet.

“Yeah, I want to tell him he’s pretty stupid and he’s a piece of [CENSORED],” I said.

“Yeah, guys?” said the Minotaur to the people/creatures beyond the door. “She wants to tell you you’re pretty stupid. Yeah.

No? I don’t think that’s the thing he wants to hear.”

“What do you want to hear anyways?” I demanded.

“What do you want to hear? What’s a Berry? A Gary? Oh, a Gary!” I heard the Minotaur say.

“A Jerry, you mean?” I said.

“No—not a Jerry—not a—Gary—lots of power?”

“That sounds like a Jerry,” I said. “Tell you what, I know where a Jerry is. We—we know where the Jerry is. Does your Master want to know?”

“Yes,” the Minotaur called.

“Well—”

“Hang on, let me figure out how to use this!” the Minotaur said.

SMASH. The wall turned into a doorway, and standing in front of us, were eight, ugly Minotaurs. As the wall transformed, the other seven ran off, leaving one behind.

“Please write the answer on the form,” the Minotaur requested. He offered me a piece of paper and a pencil. “Also—please add that No. 4 is the one that helped you—um—do the stuff.”

“What number am I?” I asked.

“No…we’re clones…I mean—we’re duplicated projections—we’re real—JUST SAY NUMBER FOUR HELPED YOU!” the Minotaur said frustratedly.

“Can you read?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, sounding offended.

I wrote

How dare you!

“Can you please tell us what this says?” I asked, showing the Minotaur the words.

“Uhh…I don’t think that’s gonna help you,” he said.

“Please just read it,” I said. “ ‘How dare you’,” No. 4 Minotaur read out.

“Excellent, I’ve just got to add some stuff…”

There is a Jerry, in far deserts in the Region of Uridin, and it’s in a pocket dimension that can only be accessed in the very center of Nidiru Desert, P.S. No.4 Minotaur helped us all into getting really confused “Alright, that’s okay,” he took the paper from me and said, “we’ll be back!” The doorway turned into a wall again.

“Everyone start smashing the walls!” Cynthia declared. I held her back.

“No, Cynthia,” I said, “we don’t want to give them the message that we are frustrated and the like. We want to show no sign of weakness, and remain as defiant as ever.”

“I’m thinking about ways to get out of here!” Cynthia hissed at me.

“Keep thinking then!” I snapped at her.

Shortly after that, we heard another voice on the other side of the wall.

“Children? Are you there? Children, is that you?” it sounded like Festo, and it was something Festo said sometimes, but lately, I’ve gotten a bunch of trust issues that saved me from stuff, so I yelled, “Are you Festo?” as some of the first years opened their mouths to tell the guy at the other side about what happened and stuff like that.

“Yes!” “Festo” said. “I’m Festo.” Sounded just wrong.

“Right…how do we know you’re not a person pretending to be Festo and are the real, live, Festo?” I shouted.

“Yeah, we don’t believe you,” Cynthia added.

“Fine then!” I said. “How many Festos—including Illusion ones—were in Professor’s Festo’s office the first time I went in there in the year 3082?”

“Umm…how many Festos were in the…ah…” the Minotaur said. Okay, wow, bruh. “TWO!” “WRONG!” I shouted. “You’re not Festo, begone thot!”

“Go away!” Cynthia yelled.

“You’re not Festo, you’re someone else—” Michael said.

“Well…I can’t be a fake Festo ‘cause magic doesn’t work in here,” said the Minotaur in a very not-Festo voice.

“The only types of magic you can’t do here are Alteration, Destruction and Illusion. Other types of magic may work, for all we know,” I responded reasonably.

“Yes…the Bag’s magic would work…”

“Give me the bag. I command thee to give me the bag, if you are the real Festo,” I snapped.

“They don’t know they got wishes!” the Minotaur said.

“What? We have wishes?” I whispered to myself. Quietly, I muttered, “I wish the Bag of Rengar was beside me, right now.”

And the Bag of Many Torments appeared, lying beside me.

“I mean—the first kid used the wish to get out of the bag, but after that, they shot down our drone so we didn’t see the rest of it—” I gave an exaggerated gasp. “So it was your drone—the spy Rachael was talking about?”

“Sorry—what was your query?” Minotaur #4 said.

“Rachael said ‘hello spy’ to something we couldn’t see in the air, when she had a side effect from her spell.”

“Why are you talking to me about spies, I don’t know anything about spies!” the Minotaur lied hastily.

“Then how could you know about the stuff about the drones?” I asked.

“I don’t know guys, I think they know about the spies,” the Minotaur said to his companions, “I don’t know how they figured it out.”

“Guys, you know I can hear you, right?” I said.

‘What?”

I laughed. “We heard about the spies.”

Then Michael said, “I wish I were literally out of here.” Then we were teleported to just inside the Casino.

Long story short, Festo made five duplicates of each of us, making them run around like crazy monkeys who got the Hyper & Crazy Monkey Syndrome (I made that up), Lilymarie and Kelymarie shot spell after spell at Gustav (yeah, Gustav was pretending to be the Grand Vizier. Didn’t see that coming, did you? Neither did Angela, if that makes you feel any better). Angela was there too, ignoring the commotion and hugging Snouty. Breehh. I seized the Bag of Many Torments, and pulled out a black card—my soul was slowly melting away to a place guarded by more than one powerful mage, etc, etc, we chased Gustav out of the Casino, I decided to call him Gilmor just to see his reaction and more than once he shouted I was dead and therefore couldn’t speak. See, this is why I called him dumb; he can’t even tell the difference between death and soulless AND BY THE WAY I WAS BREATHING. Oh well. I

collapsed, but I still was able to see. I saw the first years, Angela, and Rachael blast Gustav with all kinds of magic, I decided to insult him further by calling him Gilmor again, then I called him by his proper name. It happened with a kind of blur—or maybe being soulless just makes it seem like that. Rachael showed Gustav the Amulet, but didn’t give it to him. Knew I could count on you, Rachael. Anyways, Gustav managed to escape—but barely—and he disappeared into the Tent that held the Magic School, seized Jerry the Jouster, and floated up and into the sky.

******* “Colena?”

I glanced down. The first thing I saw was Marysa, treading water.

“Marysa!” I said, relieved. “Sorry—we’ll get you out of the Amulet soon—I promise—but it hasn’t been easy you know—” “Are you dead?” she asked.

I was a bit taken aback by this question. “No,” I said quietly, “I mean—you aren’t, are you?”

“Yeah, but I have a body,” she said impatiently.

I looked at myself—realizing I was nothing but vapour.

“How did you know it was me, then?” I asked.

“Y-you’re kind of like vapour with a face,” she said, sounding unsure of herself.

“Yeah—alright—listen—do you have anything you can tell me about this Amulet? Did you see anything?”

“Skeleton of Rengar,” she said immediately. “Random castle/fortress thing. Probably a prison. I don’t know much else.”

I glanced at the Prison. Little did I know that I’d be there soon…

So I wake up to all of us inside a prison. I was just bored but then got sent to the prison master guy or warden or something so I told him everything I knew and got sent back to the cell.

After what seems like a year Cynthea picks the lock with her wings and we tried to get out of the prison but the warden guy who I am going to call discount Aladdin says “ Thank you for leading them into my trap Lilymarie, hahahahahahahahahahaha” like ok Mister wanna be villain.

And now we are in a dark room and “Festo” starts talking like he is but we clearly can hear him talking to someone, I zone out for a bit and now Colena is SOULLESS and there is this guy who we all call Gil cause he knows us??? But then starts turning old and ugly??????????????? This is so confusing, I see him going for his sword that he stuck into the ground so I block him from the sword with Alteration.

He runs to a tent which is confusing because he is kinda trapping himself inside the tent but somehow it is bigger inside then your mom. Also a Jerry is getting pulled up like he is a hostage or something, he is getting abducted or something.

SESSION ELEVEN

Astral Prison

Rachael January 7, 3802 I don’t know why, but we decided to use our last wish, which didn’t really work. “We wish that Gustav was here, sapped of all his powers, and unconscious,” Justin (there’s two, one of them said that, I don’t know which) yelled. Nothing happened. I felt it, but still nothing happened.I don’t know why he had to yell it, either, because I guess he just couldn’t say anything normally. I also didn’t appreciate the fact that I had Colena and Marysa trapped in my pocket, because I found it rather creepy to be carrying someone’s soul in my pocket (the amulet was in my pocket, and their souls were in the amulet).

“Do they not see what happened?” Justin asked Festo and Argon.

“Yes, I see what happened,” Festo said with a frown, “I have some ideas, but Argon’s really the expert in, ah, this-” “Okay, then do something!” Justin said.

“Right. Well, that spell would work if he’s in the tower,” Argon explained, “So, given that it didn’t work, I gather that he’s not upstairs.” And with that, he rolled his wheelchair forward to the brass disk, and started floating up.

We all looked up through the hole in the ceiling to track him, and Argon looked around on each floor as he continued to go up, making a disappointed face as each one didn’t give him what he was looking for. He reached the brass oculus that led to the staff room, and exclaimed, “Whoa, didn’t know he could do that! Did not know he could do that! Come on and have a look!”

So we one by one filed up the elevator, reaching the staff room, which was open.

I haven’t yet explained how Argon made the portal that took us to Primar. It turns out, the portal was made from a puddle from the rain from the night before to create a medium of transportation, which would allow anyone who steps in it to essentially teleport to the desired location. The fact that Festo, Tyrande, and Gil kept on telling us that teleporting was impossible was the stretched truth. It is possible to teleport, but not with wild magic.

Right then, there was a bowl on the long table. It was filled with water - which was a glowing white - and inside the water, there was the image of an island. An island, surrounded by glowing white water, much like the water in the amulet, the pommel of Gustav’s sword, and the dagger. And on that island was a structure that was clearly not designed by nature, but rather by one who has an intellectual capacity to design.

It was a well-fortified fortress, its grey walls dully reflecting the water. There was a great gate guarding it, barred and locked securely. It gave off a sort of gloomy air, even though the water around it was really bright. It looked like it was made in an attempt to conceal the great structure as a cave, but the architect didn’t have any idea what a cave was.

“There’s some magic that allows us to move between the planes,” Argon explained, “And when I was a wee lad, I was more or less the only one who could do it. I didn’t know Gustav could do it, either.

Lately… a couple of ye bys and gys-” that’s how he says boys and girls “-have been doing it.”

“Alteration allows you to change the world around you”, Gil had said. And your body wasn’t really “the world around you”. Which meant shapeshifting… wasn’t really Alteration. And then going to the ethereal plane meant turning invisible… but it made you see things in a different way. Illusion didn’t really alter your vision. Which meant… whatever was happening… What was it?

“Ah, rules of magic have become rather squishy as of late,” Argon said, “as evident to why-” he waved a hand rather absent-mindedly at the black dragon wings protruding out of Cynthia’s back, which were currently furled and not flapping around incessantly like it had before.

“That - That’s new,” Argon said (oi, I thought you were the person who could do all kinds of amazing things), “We definitely couldn’t do that before. What - uh, what I’m trying to say-” “Argon is a plane-traveler,” Festo offered. Argon made a face.

“There have not been many in history, and none recorded since the death of Rengar,” Argon said rather dramatically, “You might imagine, we didn’t spread this information around. But yes. I can travel through the planes.”

I snapped my fingers, reaching out to the doorway that was almost always there, that gave me access to the ethereal plane, following the trail I usually took that led me there. Instead… there was nothing. The trail just went on and on, Then I realized I forgot that we were in a pocket dimension, in which the ethereal plane didn’t exist.

“Uh, yes, that’s how this place works. It’s its own plane. I think I’ve used the term pocket dimension before. A sort of space between spaces,” Argon said.

Uh, okay? That sort of didn’t make sense, could you try explaining it more unambiguously?

“And,” Argon continued, “It can be very easy to reach out to the different areas, but you need a medium to do it. Normally everyone needs a medium to do it. The way you can just step into the ethereal plane is rather alarming. And it’s something we’ve been meaning to talk to ya about. Because what you’ve been doing, it’s a type of magic we don’t rightly understand.”

“Uh, you remember me talking about… having us teach a class?” Festo asked Cynthia (it’s a rhetorical question, guys, so don’t blame me for not including Cynthia’s answer, because she didn’t have one), “We don’t really know what this type of magic is. You’ve been doing it relatively safely, so we just stood back and let it happen.”

“Anyway,” Argon continued, pointing a hand in the direction of the bowl filled with the shimmering white water that sat on the table, and my gaze drifted to the dagger at Argon’s side. Colena must’ve given it to him. I realized one more place that I recognized this water in - the water beside the boat Chris, Jerick, and I were in. Since we had come back from that experience that had us at Death’s door, I had realized that that was what was called the Astral Sea. It comprised almost the entirety of the Astral plane, which is where souls go when they die. Which somehow made looking at the bowl a whole lot worse, since I’d realized we were looking at dead people, and the fact that I’d nearly been one of them. Now there, that was an unsettling thought.

I reached into the pocket, closing my fingers around the silver chain and lifting it out, the gleaming white gem dangling on the end.

Aaannddd we just had to go completely off topic right then. “I- I think this might be the time to make an announcement,” Argon declared (what?)

“Um. How are you going to do that?” someone asked.

“Well, you’ve been the ones at the leading edge of magic creation for the whole last year-” (what?)

“It’s been two days and two nights since the first years arrived at this tower,” I pointed out, which no one seemed to hear.

“-why don’t the lot of you come up with something? Also, you got your Wish. Potentially, you could turn it into something else. Or, you could carry it through. It didn’t work on Gustav ‘cause he’s in a different plane. If you were to pursue him through this portal, I imagine you’d be able to do it. Whoa, one more thing. We got some mail!”

Argon drew out two envelopes, handing one to Chris and the other to Justin (one of them).

I see you’ve been spending a decent amount of time, out of time, it said on Chris’s, a trick like this could be useful to improve productivity.

Out of the envelope fell a ridiculously tiny ornate dagger.

I can’t believe this took me a month to make, Justin’s letter said, and out of the envelope fell acrossbow? Envelopes don’t have space for crossbows.

I nervously reached out to the water and dipped a finger in it before withdrawing it. Nothing happened, really, just the water rippled, making the image ripple, but once the water calmed down, there was no difference in the landscape. I felt a slight pull, too, like whatever was in this bowl wanted me to go in, but it wasn’t forcing me or anything.

Then I touched the amulet to the water, holding it there. The top opened, and everything inside was pulled towards the bowl. A boat appeared which, excluding the lantern, looked the same as the one that Chris, Jerick, and I had been on. On that boat sat Marysa and Colena - also a pretty strange sight was the skeleton rambling around next to them.

The amulet held souls, usually in the form of liquid, after people were dead. But, Colena and Marysa were in there as a solid, and Rengar had used this to trap his victims, like the pommel of Gustav’s sword. The people in the amulet wouldn’t be able to speak to anyone on the Material plane, who couldn’t hear them, only see them through the amulet.

“How do I get them back?” I asked.

“Well, you can’t bring them back this way, but if you go through the portal, you can get them when you return, provided that one of you is able to open a portal back.”

“How do you do that?” someone asked.

“Oh, I have no idea, the only person I know who has been able to make a portal is Argon.”

Then someone suggested sending Argon in.

“Well,” Festo replied, “If we send Argon in - we can’t - you know, there’s nothing we can do on this side to help.”

“I’ll do it,” Argon offered, “No no, Festo, I’ll do it. It’s okay, I’ll do it. I’m going in for Colena and Marysa, and I worry about leaving Gustav over there, but really- really, it’d be too much for the children to ask that they go in.”

“I don’t think it’d be too much to ask at all,” Festo said jubilantly, “Watch them, they’ll literally fight for what we do! Tyrande and Gil are coming back, and we’ll set them through if anything happens.

We promise! Bring Argon - Argon will get you back, and if we need, we’ll just send more kids into the bowl! We have lots of kids here!”

I let out a quiet snarl.

In the bowl, Colena made a few pretty rude gestures including the one that involves one of your fingers sticking up. F--- you, she mouthed.

“It looks like she’s saying ‘luck’!” Festo said triumphantly, clearly not knowing how to read lips, “It looks like she’s saying ‘lucky’! She’s trying to wish us luck!”

Colena made a whole bunch of other rude gestures.

“She’s waving!” Festo exclaimed.

Cynthia walked towards the bowl, and touched the water, before it pulled her in and she disappeared with a ripple. One by one, we all got pulled into the bowl, and Argon was the last to be pulled inside. Oh yeah, and I still think I wouldn’t like to use a portal again.

We all appeared in the middle of the sky, and fell down to the ground with a thump, landing on the island. I stood up - as did the others - and looked around. A boat was coming ashore, carrying Marysa, Colena, and the rambling skeleton. As I saw this, Argon came floating down from what appeared to be nothing. He held his lantern up, casting a circle of light on the ground around us, which, now that I think of it, looked quite similar to the light on the sea.

“Colena! Marysa!” he yelled, “How are you doing?”

“We’re doing pretty good, thank you,” Colena replied, “although [insert stuff I didn’t hear].”

“Right…” Argon said slowly, though he looked like he didn’t know what she was talking about, “What’re you doing with the skeleton?”

“Uh… Marysa said she thought it was Rengar’s skeleton after she got trapped in the amulet in her own room.”

“The skeleton was in the amulet?” Argon asked. Okay guys, that was absolutely disgusting for me. The fact that I was carrying Marysa and Colena in my pocket was sort of fine, but the fact that I was carrying a skeleton - please excuse me, I need to go puke. I might’ve exaggerated that a little.

“Yeah… I guess?”

“Right, so what are you doing with it?

“Well, I think the skeleton is Rengar and I wanna blow this thing up.”

“Okay.”

Colena blasted it with energy, but nothing happened except the skeleton lifted its skull and glared at her. Since that didn’t work, Colena turned the skeleton into a potato and incinerated it.

“Great, so, now that we’ve vanquished whoever that was-” Argon started.

“It was Rengar,” Colena interjected.

“How do we know that?” Cynthia asked.

“Because Marysa told me that-” “Can I help you?” A dreamy voice interrupted, sounding wistful and far away.

“Are you Rengar or are you Gustav?” Colena asked.

“No,” the voice replied, and we turned to see an individual dressed all in black, “Are you looking for them?”

“Yes, please,” Colena said - and I wondered if that was the first time I’d heard Colena say “please”.

“Well, they are here,” replied Death (I know you’re like, wait that’s Death? The answer is yes), “though we do not allow visitors. What business do you have on my island?”

“I don’t know how the heck I got here,” Colena said. I accidentally dumped you out of an amulet, I thought, and now I think I’m starting to regret it.

“Most people don’t, they just wake up,” Death said, “Everyone thinks it’s in some epic blaze of glory but usually it’s just a breakfast on a Tuesday.”

“What’s so special about a breakfast on a Tuesday?”

Someone was telling him about the bowl, and Death said, “Nothing at all, except that’s probably how you died - I don’t think you went through the bowl, my dear, I think the last thing you were looking at was the bowl until your soul left your body. You were probably looking at - as I say - your breakfast on this beautiful day. Anyway, if you’re not ready to retire, you can always lounge on the beaches, or drift-” “I have a question,” Colena interrupted, “Where is Rengar and where is Gustav?”

“You have a lot in front of you in the afterlife, girl, no need to interrupt.”

“I don’t give a [REDACTED FOR INAPPROPRIATE PURPOSES] and I want to know where Rengar is.”

Then Death said some other nonsense, and Colena said, “Yeah, whatever, now tell me where Rengar is.”

“Rengar,” Death said, “did not comply with the protocol, and as I said, you can lounge as much as you want before entering the water.”

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Colena said, rolling her eyes.

“There is a balance between the world of the living and the dead, and those who violate that balance must be restrained by other means.”

“Where is Rengar?”

“In prison.”

“Which prison?”

“The one I’m pointing at.” Death waved a hand carelessly behind him, at the great towering structure that loomed above us.

“Oh, is that the castle I saw earlier while I got that side effect?”

“It’s very likely that you had a brush with death earlier - you would’ve been alive, though.”

“Alright, can we go there? To that prison? Without touching the water?”

“Yes, yes. I think I would like that very much,” said Death after muttering something under his breath.

“Just make sure we don’t touch the water,” Colena said.

“Oh, yes, you might want to stay out of the water until you’re ready to join the afterlife.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll join the afterlife after seven hundred years.”

“If you’re talking about dying, you are almost certainly dead if you are here, the only question-” Colena spat (rather rudely) on the ground at Death’s feet and said, “We just want to get to that prison!”

Then something happened that I couldn’t hear, and Death turned and drifted towards the castle.

Argon glanced at Colena oddly, and said something that sounded like, “Do you know who that is?”

“Tell us about him,” Colena replied.

“That’s Death! That’s definitely death and Colena’s swearing at him!”

“Yeah, alright, great!”

Then we followed Death to the castle.

Death paused. “I don’t remember this,” he murmured.

In front of him were two Jerries. Well, they looked like Jerries, except Jerries weren’t stationed in the Astral plane. They had crossed their jousting sticks to block Death’s path, allowing no access to the castle.

“Wait, are you guys the Jerries?” Colena asked.

No answer.

Colena attempted to brush past them, and finally they responded.

“None shall pass!” they said in a harsh, guttural voice that clearly wasn’t theirs, pushing Colena backwards.

There was a loud bang, and the one nearest to Colena exploded as she thrust out a hand. The other lowered its lance and charged. I waved my hand and a shimmering blue shield appeared in front of Colena, which the suit of armour charged straight into, and disintegrated. As this happened, two green balls of light appeared - which I assumed were the souls of the dead children who had died under the protection of the school - and swiftly drifted down the island, disappearing into the water.

“That was- That was rather exciting,” Death said.

“Yeah, this is why I don’t plan on dying here,” Colena said, “I want to live so I can blow more stuff up. Now let me in.”

Death said something, before opening the doors with a creak and letting us in. Inside, there were more Jerries, four rows of them, with two standing at each side of the hall in every row. They were all still, their spears held upright, but as soon as we tried to move past them, they blocked our path with their lances. “None shall pass!” they said in the same guttural tone.

Colena blew one up, which caused the other seven of them to lower their lances and charge, their armoured feet clinking and clanking on the floor. The orb zipped past Colena and out the door, plunging into the sea. I annihilated three of the lances held by the closest Jerries. The first one grabbed Colena. The second one grabbed both of them, and the third one wrapped their arms around them and yelled, “None shall pass!”

Cynthia waved her hand, melting one of the Jerries halfway. And then - I sort of don’t know how I did this - I just snapped my fingers and thought about the Jerries going back to the way they were, and all the Jerries exploded, revealing seven green orbs. But instead of flying out the door and disappearing into the water, they zipped together, and then the rest was a blur until a second later, a Jerry appeared.

“Whoa, whoa,” he said, looking around in bewilderment, “whoa.”

“Is something wrong?” Colena asked.

“Hey! You stop blowing up Jerries!” he cried, pointing accusingly at Colena.

“They were in my way,” Colena protested, “and they attacked me! What happened?”

The Jerry clutched his helmet as if he had a headache, except suits of armour can’t really get headaches. He said something about there being seventy-something voices in his head, and then another exchange happened, before Colena asked, “Is Rengar here?”

“Rengar’s here?”the Jerry asked “Aren’t you supposed to know?”

And then there was a little conversation, until the Jerry got sent back to M Litterae Est Magicae.

There were three floors in here, and we split up - Jerick, Grace, Haolin and Maxwell went upstairs, both Justins and Cynthia went downstairs to the basement, leaving Colena, Chris, Michael, Angela, Argon, and I to explore the main floor.

Colena summoned two illusions of ghosts, which Argon immediately turned pale at and whispered something to Colena that sounded like, “Did you have to do that?” Colena, meanwhile, had been saying to the ghosts to immediately come back to her if the people on the upper and basement floors had to split up. Both ghosts drifted to each of the groups, who started off on their respective floors. Death went with the group that went to the upper floors first.

We walked down the hallway, towards a room at the end of the corridor that had a closed door.

It was closed, so we opened it and walked inside. The room was empty. Then Colena, Angela, Chris, Michael, and Argon disappeared from view, and I found myself in a plain room with a table, and on the table was a mirror.

I walked over to the mirror. I saw myself for a moment, then a whole bunch of dead people I knew and didn’t know. That was incredibly confusing, as a portrait of each person flashed by, each one smiling and happy. Then, since I am incredibly bad at staying not bored, I turned around and walked out of the room. Angela was looking confused (as was I), Michael was whimpering, “spiders”, Colena’s face was twisted in a grimace of disgust, Chris was trying to keep his face still but doing a horrible job, and Argon came out of his room, as pale as snow.

“Did you have fun with the ghosts?” Colena teased as one of the illusionary ghosts drifted through the roof, signaling that the people upstairs had split up.

“I- It was no problem,” said Argon, still looking incredibly pale.

Then we exited the room we found ourselves in a study room, and two people were scribbling furiously on papers. Both of them had their hoods down - but I recognized one of them immediately Gustav. Argon looked considerably relieved when Colena waved her hand, making the illusionary ghosts disappear. Standing in the room already were the people who’d gone to the upper level - Maxwell, Haolin, Jerick, and Grace. Coming up from below were the people who’d gone to the basement - Cynthia, and the two Justins - with the addition of death.

“Are you Rengar?” Colena called towards the hooded figure.

“Do not address him,” Gustav hissed.

Colena said, “I don’t care, I will” and continued to shout “Are you Rengar?” to the hooded figure before we all told her to shut her mouth. Thankfully, she listened.

“Now, Colena… Marysa… where is the skeleton?”

“You know, why do I not want to tell you that?” Colena replied, clearly trying to hide her smile.

“It’s a potato,” Cynthia piped up.

“I turned it into a potato and blasted it, get rekt,” Colena said gleefully.

The hooded figure, also known as Rengar, stopped writing, turning towards us. He looked incredibly creepy, mostly because he really didn’t have a face. Just darkness inside the hood, shrouding whatever features that he could be recognizable by.

“P-potato?” Gustav stammered.

“Potato,” Cynthia agreed.

“Yes, I turned it into a potato, Angela’s favourite food,” Colena said with a laugh.

“And then we crushed it,” Michael added.

“I blew it up,” Colena pointed out, “Michael, you did nothing. Stop claiming credit for it.”

“Potato?” Gustav repeated angrily.

“Yes!” Colena said merrily, “I turned it into a potato! Do you have ears?! Hello??”

“It’s potato,” someone else agreed.

“It’s a potato and Colena exploded it,” another person said.

“You took the best hope for magic users and TURNED IT INTO A POTATO AND CRUSHED IT??”

Gustav cried incredulously.

“I wouldn’t call it the best hope for magic users, but yes, I did turn Rengar’s skeleton into a potato and blew it up,” Colena said joyously.

“Yes, he’s a potato now,” Cynthia added.

Gustav sighed dramatically. “Very well,” he said submissively, “Which among you is the plane-traveler?”

“Angela, Rachael-” Colena began.

“I’m not a plane traveler,” I protested, but Colena didn’t seem to hear.

“-and I. And your foster kid over there,” Colena finished, jerking her head at Argon, who glared at Colena and hissed, “Wish you left me out of that one.”

“Argon,” Gustav said, suddenly looking awake and very kind despite his shriveled appearance, “My boy,” he crooned.

“Really wish you left me out of that one,” Argon muttered.

“I always knew you’d come back to me,” Gustav said, being really really stupid, “Rachael, these are the things that we could accomplish with sacrifices. Cynthia, a little bit of pain… a little bit of power think of the things we could accomplish!”

“I don’t want power,” Colena snapped.

“That’s why I didn’t choose you as my prodigy,” Gustav replied as my hand drifted to my pocket again and I drew out the amulet, which immediately caught Rengar’s attention.

Another little bit of dialogue happened, before I snapped my fingers, making a white-hot fire appear under Gustav’s nose (it was for fun).

“AAHHH,” he screamed, lurching backwards for his sword, then realizing it wasn’t there. He prepared his own blast of magic, and a flash of blue lightning streaked towards me, and I rolled towards the side, the lightning hitting the wall. As he prepared for a second spell, someone shouted (I don’t know who, I was too busy trying not to die which I guess was sort of my fault), “I wish that Rengar was turned to dust!”

And as Gustav prepared his second spell, the hooded figure next to him began to crumble, turning into dust, which was kind of disgusting considering it blew on all of us. Death lifted a scythe and flew towards Gustav, and there was a scream of pain as a rift appeared and we all dived into it… and landed back in the staff room at M Litterae Est Magicae, with Tyrande and Gil grinning from ear to ear.

Colena’s body was there, conked out, and she woke up with her soul returned to her body. I slipped the amulet back into my pocket.

“Where did you go?” Colena demanded, and Tyrande smiled.

“We’ll tell you at dinner,” she replied.

“Why can’t you tell us now?”

“We’ll tell you at dinner,” Tyrande repeated.

And, of course, Tyrande being Tyrande, lied about that and didn’t tell us anything.

But that barely mattered, because surely Rengar was gone and Gustav was dead, so what did we have to worry about?

Colena Shan

Date: January 9, 3082 Location: Inside the Amulet “Too late,” Cynthia said bitterly, as Gustav disappeared. I lost track of what happened for the next two minutes, and I lay slumped in a chair. I struggled to speak.

“Wish that Gustav was here, sapped of all his powers,” I said, feeling half of my soul gone. The first years, Angela, and Rachael tried, but failed.

“Different dimension,” was all I heard Argon say.

Rachael hesitantly pulled out the Amulet. Argon looked at it warily, and I could tell that he remembered the conversation I had with him a few nights ago.

I glanced at the table behind Argon. On it sat a bowl, filled with some sort of magical water.

Rachael also approached the bowl and put her hands to it.

“Put…the amulet in the water,” I managed to say.

Rachael did so, and I was no longer with them. My soul had completely left my body.

I was in a boat, sitting with Marysa, and, to my surprise, Rengar’s skeleton. [insert a bunch of stuff where Festo was being stupid and I made a bunch of insulting hand gestures at him and Cynthia calling me insulting names]

Argon, Rachael, Angela and the first years headed towards the bowl and appeared on a small island in the Amulet. Marysa and I waved at them, and the boat drifted towards them. Rachael was now holding the Amulet.

“Colena! Marysa! How are you two doing?” Argon called out to us.

“We’re doing very good, thank you, although you ought to give Festo lip-reading lessons,” I said (Festo deciphered the F word as Luck).

“Riiight. What are you doing with a skeleton?” he said.

“Marysa said she saw it after Gustav put her in the Amulet in her room,” I answered. Marysa nodded.

“The skeleton was in the Amulet?”

“Yes.” “Right…what are you doing with it?”

“Well—I think this is the Skeleton of Rengar,” I answered. “I’m going to destroy it, before Gustav can do anything.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

I flicked my hands, blasting it with energy and it didn’t seem to be harmed. I decided that I’d turn it into something easier to destroy, and a potato was the first thing that came to my mind.

I successfully transformed it into a potato, much to Angela’s delight, and blew it up easily.

“That’s an interesting way to do it,” Argon observed.

“It was Rengar’s skeleton [proceeds to explain what Gustav said to Marysa in her room].”

Death came gliding towards us. I said a quick hello, then I got everyone into the boat, and rowed us towards the small prison-place thing. Death followed.

At the gates of the prison, Death walked forwards and said, “I don’t remember this being here.”

Two Jerrys were standing in front of the Prison. As I tried to move past them, they spat, “NONE SHALL PASS!” I blew one up, and the other Jerry hit Rachael’s Force-Field, and so we proceeded without any interruptions.

We came to a hallway with 8 other Jerrys. They didn’t look too threatening, but when I tried to get past them, they lowered their jousting staffs and yelled, “NONE SHALL PASS!” I blew the nearest one up, and Rachael turned the other 7 into Jerrys that weren’t possessed by Gustav.

Later, we came to this place where there were three places to go. Upper floor, basement, or continue forwards. Angela, Rachael, Michael, Chris, Argon, and I stayed on Main. Jerick, Grace, Haolin and Maxwell went upstairs. Justin C, Justin Z, and Cynthia went to check out the Basement.

I closed my eyes and two illusions appeared. They were ghosts—I made them specifically so, since ghosts can drift through solid stuff, and I sent one upstairs with Jerick, Grace, Haolin and Maxwell, and the other with the Justins and Cynthia. My instructions were: Return to me if they split up or are in danger.

“GAH!” shouted Argon, when they appeared.

“Oh, sorry,” I said; I’d forgotten Argon had a fear of ghosts, “but I thought you’d be used to them by now, growing up in the Ancient Sphukhaus and all.” He looked really uncomfortable and didn’t relax until the ghosts were out of sight.

We proceeded onwards, and then—suddenly—I was alone, in a room. I heard someone say, “Your appetizer, ma’am,” but when I turned, I saw nobody, only a tomato salad on the table.

“Disgusting!” I hissed, throwing it at the wall. The bowl shattered. I tried not to look at the Tomato Salad.

Suddenly I found myself outside of the room—and I glanced at everyone. Chris was muttering “puppets, damn it,” under his breath, Rachael and Angela were looking confused, Michael was whimpering, “Spider, spider”.

Argon looked worst.

He was gasping for breath.

“Ghosts scared you?” I said unsympathetically. “Did you fun.”

“It was no problem,” said Argon, white as sheet.

We all ended up in a large study, and I waved my hands, causing the illusionary ghosts to disappear, much to Argon’s relief.

Two figures stood in the center, doing some quick paperwork. One had his hood down. I recognized him immediately. Gustav.

The other had his hood down, but I guessed—rightly—that it was Rengar.

“Are you Rengar?” I called to the figure with his hood hiding his face.

“Do not address him!” Gustav said, turning to me.

“I don’t care I will,” I snarled. “Are you Rengar?” x25 happened.

“Now…Colena…Marysa…where is the skeleton?”

“I turned it into a potato and burnt it, get rekt dude,” I said, trying not to laugh.

Rengar stopped writing.

“But—but—potato?” Gustav spluttered.

“Yes! I turned it into a potato, because that’s Angela’s favourite food, she said so and she’s the only second year who’s as dumb and crazy as me,” I said cheerfully.

“Potato!” the first years started chanting. “Potato! Potato!”

“POTATO?!” Gustav yelled.

“YES! I TURNED IT INTO A POTATO!” I said, laughing. “DO YOU HAVE EARS? HELLO?!”

“Potato!” sang Cynthia.

“Yeah, it’s a potato!” Michael cheered. “And Colena exploded it!”

“You took the best hope for magic users and turned it into a potato and crushed it?!” Gustav shrieked.

“I wouldn’t call it the best hope for magic users, but yes, I did turn Rengar’s Skeleton into a potato and blow it up. That is true.”

“It is a potwato now,” said Cynthia in a hilarious mock-baby voice.

“Very well…which among you is the Plane Traveler?” Gustav said.

“Me, Rachael, Angela…and your foster kid I guess,” I said, jerking my head at Argon.

“Yeah!” Cynthia said. I like the fact that she’s backing up every word I say.

“Argon…my boy…” said Gustav.

“What the frick this is so uncomfortable,” Cynthia said loudly.

“Wish you left me out of that one,” Argon hissed at me. I shrugged. “Sorry?”

“Of course,” said Gustav, “of course. I always knew you could be this with a bit of pushing. You see Rachael? This is the sort of thing we can accomplish if we sacrifice.”

“No,” I said for Rachael, “Rachael does not see, nor does she care about what you think.”

“Cynthia seems to understand,” Gustav said. “A little bit of pain…a little bit of manipulation…in the quest for magical glory…might become the thing that destroys the world! If it pays off this track. Think of how powerful we’ll be when they’re on our side.”

“I don’t care for power,” I snapped.

“That’s why I didn’t select you as a prodigy—you show no—” (yeah, I don’t give af) Gustav spat.

“Thank you. And you don’t show any brains,” I interrupted.

Rachael hissed with fury and made a glowing fire under Gustav’s chin.

“AH!” he called.

I used the Wish, “I wish that Rengar was nothing more than dust, now and forevermore!”

Gustav, who was backing away from Rachael’s fire, reached for a sword that wasn’t there, snarled at Rachael, raised his hand, and a large bolt of blue lightning appeared, and he chucked it at Rachael. She flung herself to the side.

Gustav prepared himself for another attack., “You fools!” he spat. “Do you not know where you are?”

“Yeah, we know we’re in the Amulet,” I said.

“Rengar has full rein here. The dead is his domain,” Gustav continued, “he has—” “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes as Cynthia said “potato skeleton”.

“DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS FOR HIM TO ASK CHILDREN TO HELP REGAIN HIS KINGDOM?!” Gustav roared. “And you think you can destroy—” he broke off, catching sight of Rengar’s robe, where sand was spilling out. “Master?”

I laughed hysterically. “Yeah, Gustav, we can totally see what you mean. Rengar will join the Dead now.” I grinned. \ “But—but—but—but he—” Gustav spluttered.

“Gustav, we used his own magic against him!” I said. “Did he ever consider that?”

Gustav did not reply.

“You way wish to leave now,” Death said. “Return to where you came from, I have a political review to read.”

He seized his scythe and swung his scythe in the air, creating a rift in the air. “You may watch,” he added, as he walked towards Gustav, “but be careful.”

Everyone except Rachael, Marysa and I stayed behind. “Th-this can’t be,” Gustav was saying. And the room went black, and we heard shrieks of pain. I dove into the rift, Rachael and Marysa close behind.

******* Tyrande and Gilmor was waiting outside, looking tired. My soul returned to my body, and slowly, I got up from the chair I was sitting in. Gil and Tyrande looked surprised at the sight of Marysa. “I told you,” I muttered to those two, and Marysa, Rachael and I went down to the Dining Hall.

“Where did you go?” I asked Tyrande and Gilmor.

“We’ll tell you later—during dinner,” Tyrande said. She never did. What a liar.

The Jerrys offered me a small glass of water, one bread bun, and a small portion of soup to me, while giving everyone else generous helpings. Probably because I destroyed most of the Jerry Network. Checking the water wasn’t poisoned, I finished it in one gulp, chucked the soup at Library Jerry’s head, and tossed the bun onto my Serving Jerry’s face.

“It’s okay, we can’t feel pain!” sang Library Jerry.

I was glad everything was back to normal. I left the tent, and decided to get myself something tasty from Orrinshire. (Yes, I have loads Gilder now—I stole some from Professor Gilmor’s office if you must know, when I was investigating the brick, but if you dare tell him, I will make sure the rest of your life is painful and make sure you die with your heart full of regrets.)

Okay so this is all I remember

-Wish is the only spell that mortal creatures can cast by simply speaking aloud. You can alter the very foundations of reality and cord with your desire. The basic use of this spell is to duplicate any other spells. It's got some rules but how powerful they can be you don’t need any requirements to do the spell you just do you could create an object or got 2 $25,000 and values of is and magical your aloud to 20 creatures that you could bring in all of their hit points you can only restore 10 creatures that you could see by using damaging and about to 10 years of community you can undo a single event by forcing a reroll of any roll may within the last rounds So that you have to do that kind of recently.

-You can’t change history, you might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of above the examples so they knew this works is that you could propose something to me, and I will let you know if it works or not so if it doesn’t work and the spell fails its a rewish so, would you like me to use that formulation that colena’s writing right now?

As we went into the astral plain Death came to us talked to us about a prison, and brought us to it. We started to search the prison I went to the basement. When I went there I saw jack lanterns. Then it said we are from the government. Because I was an anarchist I punched it in the face. Then it ran away. All of a sudden Death became bigger, and bigger and bigger! Soon it was an ancient enemy rising from the dead. There was a huge fight between the teacher and Rengar (who is the bad guy). We won, and we travelled out the Death’s prison, because come people can create portals. AND THAT IS THE END (AND YES I DID WRITE LESS THAN I USUALLY DO, BECAUSE I HAVE LOTS OF OTHER CLASSES)

Everyone tried to kill the Gusteau but he had escaped after that everyone went on a field trip and found a liquid that we couldn’t touch and that did some stuff and then we realized we had mail and in the mail, we had an amulet and we put the amulet in the water and we saw Colena who lost her soul and we had to get Aragorn to go to the astral plane to save Colena and only Aragorn could open the portal and bring back Colena and after we went through the portal we found out there was a skeleton in the amulet. We tried to destroy the skeleton and we turned it into a potato and we destroyed the potato. The next four people went upstairs (some people stayed and some people went downstairs) and we found four doors with each of our names. I went into Haolin’s door and I am in some kind of exam. Then I tried to kill the examiner but it did not work. Then the next thing I knew I was sucked back into the hallway death sucked us into a bottle and we saw some jack o lanterns and someone punched the jack o lantern because he was afraid of it. Then we got sucked out of t a room and we see Gusteau. Then some stuff happened and we beat Rengar and Gusteau with magic. It ends with everyone sitting around a table eating dinner.

Now we try to track down gustav in the astreal planes and we row our boat to a prison that was guarded by someone that goes by the name of “death” it looked very similar to a avatar of death so he lets us in but also follows us and when we enter, we each went into a door with our names on it to explore and when i went in i was in the dark forest my least favourite place to be and i suddenly realize im in the big plant so i get really anxious but then i somehow got out and i found myself in front of two individuals and there was actually gustave and there was another guy beside him and he was the one and only rengar and so colena decided to use our last wish to turn him into sand and he disintegrates into sand.Then, death uses his true form and killes gustave for some reason and we head onto a rift and head back to the school where professor gil and lady tyrande greets us and we eat dinner and finally the final battle is over.

We were in Gustav’s tent (or whatever). Soon we went into the astral plane and went through a portal. We went through it and landed somewhere and there was a very strong skeleton and something said no one shall pass. We turned the skeleton into a potato and blasted it. We soon found out we had to split up. Jerick, Grace, Houlin, and Maxwell went upstairs and Colena, Rachael, me, Angela, and Chris stayed in the main room while Cynthia, Justin C , and Justin Z went to the basement. The upstairs was a tourture place; the basement was a place where people were put in bottles. Main floor was seeing your fear. We soon saw Gustav and a hooded man. We wished that Rengar was a pile of sand and never came back. We soon were back at the tower.

Class 11 We went into a castle-ish structure and I decided to go explore upstairs with a few of my classmates. We began to climb up the creaky stairs and we saw rooms with our names on it. I went to the room with my name, and I noticed that it was a small, comfy room. I heard the door lock behind me, so I began to search around the room. I saw a window, but it had brick walls on the other side of the window. I then went to a desk with some candles, and I wondered what was in the drawer. I opened the drawer but then a book fell and caught on fire from the candles. My fear is fire, so I immediately wanted to put it out. I tried to put the fire out with magic, but it didn’t work, and the fire spread around the room. Then, I was suddenly out of the room, and there was this man that said “Now we know your fears”.

Gustav is going up some sort of elevator or something so we decide to use our last wish to bring Gustav back down stairs, unconscious and sapped of all of his powers however, our wish did not work and this basically means according to Argon he is in a pocket dimension?

Argon goes up and so do we, and after a lot of brain hurting Sci-fi stuff we are looking at a very small ship inside a bowl with Colena and someone else on it. Also, I got my weapon! A dagger that is very easy to conceal and should amplify my magic.

Now we are going into it and now I have a headache and once it stopped now we are talking to DEATH IT SELF. We went into a fortress prison and I decided to stick with Argon because this place is very sketchy and has a lot of bad vibes.

Suddenly I appear in a room with a puppet show, and thank god that they were not scary because I would have probably fainted. Now all of us are in the same room with that Gustav guy and a hooded man.

He is going on some evil villain speech or something and we also mentioned that Colena turned a skeleton that we think is Rengars skeleton into a potato then destroyed it, we use our last wish to turn Rengar into dust and can never come back ever again.

Death, who is pretty chill, just makes a rift and we all jump in it while the prison starts crumbling down because it is all like Rengars spirit of soul or something? We go through the rift and bam!

We are back with everyone including Colena who is soulless and also has her soul back, and guess who is here? It was Festo, Tyrande and GIL! I end the day of with some nice tater tots.

Epilogue

Epilogue

After finishing my breakfast, I start training with my dagger on a log and just start getting used to the dagger. I slashed the log, I stabbed the log, at one point when I tried to channel some destruction magic by setting the log on fire.

Long story short, I almost started a forest fire, no biggie, I decided to just use alteration magic to not start a forest fire, and it did decent! I worked on increasing the amount of time that it takes to pull out the dagger and enhance spells as fast as I can.

After about 6 hours of training I have gotten better but still might miss or take too much time to pull it out, but I have gotten very good at amplifying the magic but still might make mistakes, also I am getting better at not burning down a forest, very nice.

Epilogue After the story ends, I go back to my home and reunite with my family.(I might go back to the school?)idk :)

After dinner, i felt tired i fell on my bed and snoozed off.The next morning i woke up ate my breakfast and explored more of the city of orishire and took a hair cut there now i look very stylish and handsome.I decided i might go back to visit my family again but then thought im not aloud to so i spent the rest of my days in orrinshire.

Maxwell stops using magic and goes back to the desert and becomes an archaeologist and studies pyramids

Rachael Sometime afterwards.

Really, I don’t know why I have to do an epilogue. Anyway. Colena somehow managed to steal the Bag of Torments from me, which I really didn’t mind about because I didn’t like the fact that I was carrying about ten thousand dangerous things around. I still had the amulet, however, which still probably worked. For the rest of the year life was rather uneventful, and who knows what will happen next year?

Colena Shan

Epilogue The rest of the year was okay. Many people were friendly to me, Rachael, Angela and the first years because we’re the people who killed Rengar. The only person who hated me was Library Jerry, as the other Jerrys thought I was acting for the best.

Gilmor was delighted to be back at Orrinshire, having grown up there, and he took the entire January off, exploring the town and pointing out shops he liked to go to when he was young.

Marysa told me and Rachael everything that happened. We thanked her for the information.

Nowadays, I had the Amulet around my neck, and the Bag of Many Torments slung across my shoulders.

Argon had let me keep it on the condition that I never use it, and I never did. Rachael sometimes had the Amulet too, since she wanted to inspect it.

My fellow second years were the first to hear the story. Erica, Melissa, Ethan, Vanessa, Bingyin, Jayden, Elizabeth, Jerry-Dominic, Jerry-Rachael and Kylie. They managed to guess much of the story, but they had been part of the beginning of it, after all.

Cynthia had a meeting with the teachers, and Tyrande, Festo and Argon agreed that Cynthia could probably teach a course on self-transformation at the school when she got better at it. In the end, she had to give up her black, dragon wings, since they got in the way.

Marysa was also reunited with Doggo, and Doggo was very happy to be reunited with the real Marysa, knocking over two Jerrys in his eagerness to meet her.

We also found the REAL Vizier, locked up, and we freed him.

I decided to never pledge to any school. I was just fine being unpledged, and I was allowed to sit at literally any table I wanted—so—if I fancied a chat with Rachael and Tyrande, I’d sit at the Destruction Table. If I wanted to speak with Gil about something—then I’d sit at the Alteration Table. If I wished to tell Festo stuff, then I’d sit at the Illusion Table.

I think if we ever got a Teacher for the Experimental Magic we discovered recently, I might pledge to that.

Who knows what’ll happen next year?